All Hail The King
by the7joker7
Summary: Once the supreme power and the center of the galaxy, the Kingdom of the Moon has fallen to ruin, forced to merge with the Kingdom of Earth to survive. Fortunately, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity do love each other...unless certain discoveries can change that. SilMil, Alternate Timeline, Rated T for some violence, language, themes.
1. Museum of the Past

All Hail The King

Summary: Once the supreme power and the center of the galaxy, the Kingdom of the Moon has fallen to ruin, forced to merge with the Kingdom of Earth to survive. Fortunately, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity do love each other...unless certain discoveries can change that. SilMil, Alternate Timeline, Rated T for some violence, language, themes.

A/N: So, I had an idea years ago to write a Silver Millenium story. It was big, it was bold, it was daring, it may have flown too close to the sun...but I loved it. I spent months writing up backstory and character information, I was prepping to go all out on it, devote potentially years of my life to it…

And then...I lost my Sailor Moon muse, and fell out of the fandom, for an assortment of reasons that I'll pass on getting into detail on. And the story idea, still bold and risky as ever, fell out of my mind.

So, now, I find myself wanting to get back into Sailor Moon, as circumstances have given me the opportunity to consider doing so. So, I figured I could take a shot at the story I had conceived of so long ago. And here it is.

Once again, this is a very large, long-term project, that will go a lot of different directions, including some directions that some readers may end up being uncomfortable with, just in terms of the nature of the drama. So if you decide to take this ride, you may find yourself hitting some bumps. And this story is, by and large, a serious drama with many dark aspects, so prepare for that.

This story is sort of an alternate timeline, taking the (thin) information we have about canon Silver Millenium and greatly expanding on it, as well as taking some liberties. This story came to me while I was binging _Breaking Bad_ , and there's a decent amount of influence and inspiration from there. You could call it a very loose adaptation of _Breaking Bad_ , even.

I can't guarantee a steady flow of updates, my muse does not pump out a chapter every three days anymore, but I'll do the best I can.

"

Chapter 01: Museum of the Past

"Okay, just like we talked about," Jadeite hissed, leaning up close to Endymion's left ear. "You're in charge, you're the boss, these people need to know that. You command the room, rule over it, make sure everyone listening to you knows that you're the man."

"No, no, no," Zoisite protested from Endymion's other side. "That's all wrong, don't listen to him. This is about making them feel important, feel valued! Things are already delicate, we need to get them to like us."

Endymion swallowed down hard, caught between his two loyal guardians, conflicting advice fluttering through each ear and ending up a mishmash in his brain. He tried to block it all out, focusing on the carefully crafted plan he had synthesized over the last moon cycle, walking himself mentally through every step.

"I'm with Jadeite," Nephrite growled, stepping up by the Crown Prince of Earth. "This is a bailout, everyone knows it. A burden we take on to save their asses. Why should we pretend otherwise?"

"Well, you'll be keeping sentiments like _that_ to yourself," Kunzite ordered, pointing over at Nephrite. "That sort of rhetoric is exactly what could make all this much harder than it needs to be."

"Hey, hey, everyone, back off."

Endymion felt a slight relief on the space immediately surrounding him being vacated as his guardians stepped back. He jolted a bit as a pair of hands came down on his shoulders from behind.

He glanced behind him to find Kasios standing there, hands up on his shoulders.

"This is his wheelhouse. He's got this. Last thing he needs is you bozos diluting his message." He rubbed Endymion's shoulders a few times. "Alright, son, get out there."

Endymion nodded, then turned back to the small curtain in front of him. With a deep breath, he stepped forward, reaching his hand out to sweep the curtain to the side.

He couldn't help but immediately let the breath go. He had spoken in front of large crowds before, in fact it was something of a strength of his, to present himself to an audience. But as he stepped out onto the small dais, the thousands of eyes in the tight crowd before him had an impact on him. It wasn't like on Earth, where he knew practically everyone present revered, respected, and liked him. Here, on the Moon, standing before a large percentage of the population of the small satellite, opinion on the royal family of the Earth was much more complicated and mixed. And recent events had only made things all the more complicated and mixed.

Slowly walking across the dais, cloak fluttering behind him, Endymion felt the weight of every one of those eyes. It was enough to compress his chest and prevent him from drawing breath. Fortunately, he had been well-trained to not display such obvious weakness.

Beyond the massive crowd, he glanced up at the landscape, stretching off into the darkness of the horizon, an endless stretch of grey rock pocked by craters. His mind focused for just the briefest moments on how, once you got beyond the beauty of some of the Crystal structures, the Moon was actually a rather dull and barren place. The natural terrain wasn't fit for growing anything of value, so unless it could serve as a location for a structure, there wasn't much that could be done with it. So large stretches of the moon were simply...there.

He fought to not view any of this in a business sense. It wasn't that to him. Of course it wasn't. But he was smart enough to at least consider that angle.

And then, he was at the small podium in the middle of the dais. Everyone present hung onto his every action, waiting for him to begin speaking. He looked down in front of him, a clear gemstone glowing a faint pink in the center of the podium. He tapped it with his finger a few times, an abrasive _thunk_ ripping through the air and echoing all across the crowd.

And, with one last swallow of saliva, he was off.

"Aetius, famously of the Moon, but most certainly born on Earth, was considered by virtually all of his peers during his time to be absolutely insane. A respected botanist during the first twenty-six years of his life, Aetius shocked the entire planet when he decided he'd rather spend his life on the Moon. Married a Moonite woman, Chandra, and lived among the Moon population as if it was nothing. Back on Earth, of course, his name was stricken from the record books, made as if he never existed, his family disowning him and refusing to speak of his existence ever again. Oh, what was this otherwise seemingly smart man thinking, jumping from one civilization to the other as if he was deciding to have fish for dinner one night instead of chicken?"

Endymion paused for the briefest of split seconds, hearing the light buzz of some mild laughter from his audience.

"Well, three years after his departure, he tried returning to Earth. It went about as well as you might expect. He never tried coming back again. But, before he left, a curious scholar asked him what made him think such an action would be acceptable, and what made him do it. Aetius simply said that, given the Moon orbits the Earth, and does so via synchronous rotation...he just figured that the two worlds may as well be one and the same."

He reached down and picked up the oval-shaped gemstone in his right hand, taking a step away from the podium and putting the gem up near his mouth.

"That was over three thousand years ago, less than a century after our two Kingdoms began to communicate with each other. And although nobody could manage to be quite as impactful as Aetius, he did inspire a slew of people to follow in his footsteps and try to bring our worlds together. Twenty-six hundred years ago, Tor of Earth and Badar of the Moon co-write a book, the first ever summation of the known universe as told by the perspective of scholars of different civilizations. Twenty-one hundred years ago, the first constantly-running mass transport system between our worlds began running, a joint effort by both Kingdoms, which still runs to this day might I add. Thirteen hundred years ago, a crew of scientists made up of Terrans and Moonites alike develop the Aku-Dale mining maneuver, allowing for faster and more efficient extraction of resources."

He now started to pace from one side of the small dais to the other, a controlled movement meant to convey comfort and openness.

"A thousand years ago, Barson Tunneling is discovered by a team of scientists from the Earth and the Moon, allowing for quick and risk-free passage through the asteroid belt beyond Mars. Seven hundred years ago, it took the might of both Kingdoms to prevent the Ceres asteroid from striking the Earth and causing an extinction-level event."

He raised his left hand up in the air, ticking a finger up with each phrase as he spoke it.

"In the last five hundred years alone, we've had the Inner Solar System Treaty, the Theory of G, the splitting of the core of Boron Crystals, The Kelce line of starships, The Solarus line of deep space probes...all innovations made possible because the Kingdom of Earth and Kingdom of the Moon came together. We stand now, nearly thirty-two hundred Earth-years since recorded civilization began, truly the masters of our galaxy." He pointed up into the sky. "Every single planet and moon in our solar system, reachable in a matter of days. No resource of any kind untapped, nothing beyond our grasp." He slowly stepped across the dais yet again. "As we speak, the mysteries beyond our galaxy lay waiting for us, some perhaps mere cycles away from being revealed to us. In my lifetime, we may yet see planets beyond the known, past Neptune, discovered, visited, colonized, even!"

He paused, letting the weight of those words hit before he continued.

"Average lifespans have risen by twenty percent in the last three hundred years. Sixty percent of cancers, solved, cured, rooted out of our genetics, never to return, with the remaining forty percent on borrowed time. Blindness, deafness, prenatal deformities, dropping by the generation. Nerve damage that would have effectively ended a person's life two hundred years ago, now practically erasable with a couple years of treatment. How many of these miracles would we have today, were it not for co-operation between the Earth and the Moon?"

He stopped yet again, as if he was waiting for an answer.

"Would we be able to stripmine resources off the asteroids in the belt safely and efficiently? Would we be able to take a trip to one of Jupiter's lovely vacation spots as easily as we go on little sightseeing jaunts on Phobos and Deimos? Perhaps not." He turned slightly to the right, giving each section of the audience attention. "Which leads me to an obvious conclusion. The one that was so clear to Aetius over three thousand years ago, but continues to elude so many of us today." He blinked, twisting his head around a bit to look out at the many thousands before him. "Our two worlds may as well be one and the same."

He let this statement hang in the air for several seconds, ears perked up and detecting a slight murmur taking over the crowd.

"As I'm not currently being smashed into oblivion by a meteor from the hand of the Gods Terra and Diana, I'm going to take that as confirmation that I'm right."

A hearty chuckle from his audience. Louder than the first one.

"Some time in the coming cycles, I will be marrying the Princess of your world. I do this because I love her, and I care for her. Of course, this will bring our two Kingdoms together, uniting them under one flag. There's been endless debate and discussion about what this means, what it represents, and what it will change. Today, I say to you, every last person listening to me and every last citizen of the Moon. That it's little more than the latest step in the journey of cooperation between our two worlds that Aetius started."

He relaxed his posture slightly, trying to give off an air of relaxed comfort.

"No Kingdom carries more historical significance in this Galaxy than that of the Moon. Advanced civilization was born here. The mere concept of actually travelling from one orbital body to another was conceived by a Moonite. For thousands of years, the Moon housed the very peak of civilization, the center of the known universe. The Crystal Salena Temple, the Deva Shrine, all stood and continue to stand here. The Law of Ethical Planet Colonization, written here. The Moon Chalice, The Holy Grail, The Crystal Carillon, stored here. And, for all eternity, so here those things will stay. We will have a relationship founded on trust, respect, and yes, cooperation. And because we will cooperate, we will continue to be the masters of our galaxy, and even beyond."

He glanced about as the silence hung in the gathering before him.

"So. To those of you who feel as if you know me, you already know that I desire nothing more than the peaceful and mutually-beneficial merger of the Earth Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom. And to those of you who do not feel as if you know me. Well, my name is Endymion. Prince of Earth. Son of King Kasios. And I would tell you that we're going to be best of friends. But, the truth is...we already are."

Endymion set the gem on the podium, waiting a couple beats before scattered applause began echoing through the tight crowd, building and building on top of itself until it was a deafening roar, a cacophonic series of claps that built like a wave and splashed out in all directions.

"

As the applause finally began to fade, Princess Serenity reached up to wipe underneath her eyes, a couple of loose tears having trickled down her cheeks as she had listened to her husband-to-be's speech.

Having watched the entire thing from a raised platform off to the dais's right, Serenity was beyond happy that the crowd had seemingly responded so well to it. She marveled over Endymion's mastery of language, a prodigy at the art of turning a crowd of people to his will and whim with subtle movements and enunciations. Nothing like her. In that way, they went well together, she supposed.

They went well together in a lot of ways.

She felt the curtain behind her flip up, and she spun around just in time to find a young, blue-haired woman in a dark blue dress walking up behind her.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Serenity exclaimed, getting to her feet and turning to meet her friend.

"Of course I'm here," Mercury replied. "You think I'd miss this, with all the promises I've made?"

Serenity reached forward and embraced Mercury in a big hug, just as another familiar face poked into the small open chamber. This one belonging to a particularly attractive blonde.

"Come on, out here," Venus insisted, waving towards Serenity. "His speech is over, come out!"

"Oh, wonderful, you're here too!" Serenity said, breaking the hug with Mercury and sweeping through the curtain. Coming out into a long hallroom, she was immediately confronted by two more very welcome sights.

Standing next to each other were the raven-haired Queen of Mars and the tall brunette Queen of Jupiter, both girls her age, and longtime friends and companions to Princess Serenity.

"O-oh!" Serenity said, bending low at the waist over towards Mars and Jupiter.

"Hey, hey, what is that nonsense?" Mars questioned, pointing at Serenity's bowed posture. "I won't have that, absolutely not."

"You're a Queen now, and I'm still a Princess," Serenity explained. "So, as such, proper etiquette demands that I show respect like this."

"Well, as a Queen, I command that you stop that," Mars said as Serenity straightened back up.

"I don't care what I am," Jupiter agreed, taking a step forward towards Serenity. "You start bowing to me, we're going to have problems."

"I wouldn't bow to those two if you offered me all the diamonds in Mercury's vaults," Venus snarked. "Not a chance."

The collection of five young women all embraced each other in a group hug.

"Oh, we're so happy for you," Mars said. "I can only imagine how happy you are, and I hope I can feel that happy one day."

"It's a special day," Mercury agreed. "You should be very proud."

"He's...he's wonderful, isn't he?" Serenity agreed, nodding. "It was a wonderful speech, wasn't it?"

"He has a gift with words," Mercury said, nodding. "So, anyway, Serenity, we thought we'd do this now."

"Hm?" Serenity picked her head up.

"Some of us can't be back until the wedding," Jupiter explained. "So, we wanted to give you our personal gifts now, we'll have the fancier stuff for the actual wedding."

"O-oh!" Serenity said, face brightening even more. "Gifts, you guys didn't have to—"

"It's a very special day for you, of course we had to," Venus said, going down to one knee and whipping a long, thin dagger out from behind her back, presenting it up to Serenity. "One of the very blades carried by the great hunter Sita, she who brought the warring factions of Venus together two thousand years ago."

It was a silver dagger, shiny and reflective with a golden hilt that was studded with rubies. Serenity reached forward and took it by the hilt, looking it over.

"Oooh, I can open letters with it," Serenity muttered, waving it around in the air, not noticing Venus biting her tongue at this comment.

"My turn," Mars said, reaching her hand out and presenting a small red pearl towards the Princess of the Moon. "For generations, women of the Mars royal family would keep one of these on their person at all times when pregnant. Eases the spirit of the little one in the womb, improves the health of the baby when born." She glanced down at Serenity's stomach.

Serenity blinked a few times, eyes widening a bit. "M-...Mars, I...uh…"

Mars reached forward with her other hand, placing a palm on Serenity's stomach. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with us, we promise. It's just, you can't hide something like this from me."

"N-no, I…suppose not," Serenity acknowledged, grabbing the pearl between her index finger and thumb. "T-thank you, but...really, please, nobody can know."

"And nobody will," Mercury agreed, stepping in front of Serenity holding a stone slab a couple times bigger than Usagi's palm up. "Now then, Serenity, if I may present you with one of the original tablets carved by the ancient scholar Hermes."

The slab had a series of symbols and characters carved into it.

"Written in the old tongue," Mercury explained. "A true original, no others like it. One of the eighty-eight commandments chiseled by Hermes."

"You'll have to help me translate it one day," Serenity said, taking it in her hands, finding it thankfully light thanks to it's thin makeup. "I didn't do so well with my ancient language tutor."

And then, Serenity felt a great weight being added to her head, as Jupiter had come up behind her and had slipped a purple helmet onto her head. She gave a little grunt of surprise as the heavy piece of armor was placed atop her head, then spun around to look at the largest of the five girls.

"Crafted it myself last week," Jupiter explained, pointing at the helmet. "By hand, made entirely from hardened Exthermite gas. Absorbs any and all force applied to it, and will never crack."

"Well, I'm sure I can find a use for that," Serenity said, looking around at her friends. "Thank you all, so much, having you here today means the world to me! You're all so kind!"

Venus reached over and began to rub Serenity's back. "Not a force in the universe can keep me from your wedding, I give you my word on that."

"You've done a tremendous thing today," Mercury said. "You're not even a Queen yet, and you're already saving your Kingdom. This union with the Earth, it's going to...everything's going to be so much better from now on."

At this, Serenity swallowed down hard, and then gave a quick little nod. "Y-yes, it's...it's a good thing. Definitely a good thing. We...we need it."

"They need it too," Mercury assured her. "Trust me, the Earth has...desired a merger with the Moon for a thousand years."

"Well, a thousand years ago, it was actually desirable," Serenity said quietly.

"Hey, don't say that," Jupiter chided, coming up next to her. "You heard what Endymion said today, everything he said was true. The Moon is the most significant Kingdom in this galaxy."

"Was," Serenity corrected. "Was, let's...let's be accurate. Yes, of course I heard what Endymion said today."

"Then, you heard him talk about how important the Moon is," Mars insisted. "Because it is."

"Yes, uh...things that _happened_ here...things that were built here, thousands of years ago...things that were taken by us thousands of years ago...things that were. No things that are." Serenity grimaced a bit. "Just things that were."

"Hey, those things are...still here," Venus protested. "Aren't they?"

"I appreciate the kind words," Serenity said. "But...I know my own birthright." She nodded. "I know what this Kingdom is now. A collection of things that used to matter, worthy of remembering...a museum of the past."

An uncomfortable silence hung among the quintet for a moment.

"But that's okay," Serenity said. "Alright, I...I have to go see Endymion now, I'm sure he's heading to the palace." She wrapped her arms around Jupiter and Mars. "Wonderful to see you all, I can't wait to meet up at the wedding." Mercury and Venus leaned in, joining in on the group hug yet again.

"

The dark yellow liquid sloshed into the crystal cup, immediately taking on the shape enforced by the container. The fluid bubbled and frothed violently before settling.

"Don't waste any of this," Jadeite said as he repeated the act of pouring out the bottle's contents into another small crystal glass. "Goes for two hundred thousand a bottle."

Nephrite grabbed the filled glass, lifting it up in front of his face delicately, surveying the contents. "And what, exactly, are we paying for?"

"That's seventy-five percent kick, my friend," Jadeite explained, delicately filling another little cup as Zoisite took the one he had just filled. "And it kicks alright. Kicks like an angry elephant."

Nephrite gave a small scoff. "Child's play. You should see what gets mixed in the towns over east. Ninety-six percent."

"Does it come with a free sarcophagus?" Kunzite asked dryly, watching from the other side of the ornate wooden table where Jadeite was handling distribution.

Only a small portion of Kunzite's attention was on the banal conversation, however, his eyes darting about the small marble room in a sweeping pattern. The entrance to the chamber to his left, protected by only a pair of curtains hung from the top of the threshold. A low-hanging crystal chandelier, right above the table that the group was crowded around. A thick, oak shelf behind Jadeite, bearing assorted glassware.

And of course, above all else, Crown Prince Endymion, seated to Jadeite's immediate left, with his fiance draped over his right shoulder. The one he could never afford to take his eye off of. His charge. His master.

His friend.

"Well if it's so easy, get to it!" Endymion enthused from his seat opposite Jadeite, motioning over at Nephrite. Without hesitating, the brown-haired guardian lifted the glass to his lips and downed the potent drink in a single motion, maintaining a stoic and flat expression as he did so.

"Alright, alright, I'm impressed," Jadeite admitted, filling another couple small crystal cups. He passed one of them over his shoulder, Kasios taking it. "Hey, Zoi, you sure you can handle this?"

Zoisite cautiously looked his glass over, grimaced, then accepted the challenge, gulping down the concoction. Immediately, he dropped the glass to the table, then began pounding the table surface rapidly with his right palm, keeling over. His face wrinkled and contorted as his mouth fought an intense battle. However, after several beats, with a final wince, he stood back up straight and nodded.

Kasios gave a couple little laughs, stepping over from behind Jadeite and clapping Zoisite on the shoulder. "Alright! There you go!"

"Ahhh…ah!" Zoisite groaned, still wincing. "I don't see how this is fun." He gave his head a quick shake.

"Oh come on!" Kasios said. "Don't tell me that kick doesn't get you off." The King of Earth followed that up by quickly downing his own little glass. He gave a small shudder, but otherwise passed it through without ceremony. "Nothing like it!"

Endymion reached over in front of Jadeite and took one of the filled glasses. Immediately, all the focus in the room shifted to the Crown Prince, everyone silent as he braced himself. Kasios quietly walked over behind his only child, gently grabbing Serenity's shoulder and tugging her away from Endymion.

"Hey, son, you don't...y'know, maybe it's not—"

"No, no, I...I can do this," Endymion insisted, with little weight behind his words. He took in a deep breath, feeling a dozen eyeballs bearing down on him, then took the glass to his lips.

Immediately, the liquid exited via the entrance, Endymion rocketing up to his feet as the drink poured out of his mouth in a haphazard splash, staining the front of his tunic. He spun around, darting past his fiancee and over to the door behind Kunzite, unable to help making a rather embarrassing series of sounds as he moved.

"A-are you crying?" Jadeite followed him out into the hallway, sticking his head out as his charge disappeared into an alcove. "You're crying, aren't you?" Jadeite turned back around, pointing over his shoulder with his right thumb. "Yeah, he's crying," he reported, smirking.

"It occurs to me that we're supposed to be protecting him," Zoisite said dryly. Kunzite moved away from the table, taking one step towards the door, only for Jadeite to block his path with his arm.

"Yeah, from assassins," Jadeite replied, turning to Kunzite. "And buddy, pretty sure the hall is secure."

Kunzite just stood there, a disapproving look at his younger colleague, eyes rolling up to look at the ajar door.

"Come on man. Give the Moon Palace security team a little credit," Jadeite said, moving back around Kunzite. "Pretty sure things aren't that bad up here yet."

"Yeah, he's alright," Kasios agreed, taking one of the little glasses, full of drink, over to Kunzite and holding it up in front of him. "Now kick one back."

Kunzite turned to look at the King, glancing down at the glass. "I'm working," he said dismissively.

"You're always working," Kasios countered.

"What's your point?" Kunzite asked.

Kasios gave him an exasperated look. "Just take it. Come on. We're in a safe place."

Kunzite hesitated, but ultimately swallowed whatever response he had and took the little glass. Quickly, without much ceremony, he swallowed down the beverage as well. Jadeite took the window to pour himself his own little shot and gulp it down, face wrinkling as he did so.

"You can take your job seriously and still have a little fun, y'know," Kasios said as Endymion re-entered the room, a dark stain still on his tunic front and lips held tightly together in embarrassment.

"Aw, shit, see—" Jadeite turned and gave Zoisite a little tap on the back of his head. "The royal bib is your responsibility, Zoisite! Yours!" He pointed emphatically at the stain on Endymion's front. "That's on your head, Zoi!"

"How are you not fired yet?" Serenity asked, giving Jadeite a wry look. "I mean, you're...like his servant, right?"

"Hey, I don't appreciate that term," Jadeite said, bristling slightly.

"Valid question, though," Endymion muttered under his breath, sitting back down at the table hurriedly.

"You'd miss me," Jadeite said dismissively, grabbing the bottle and a clean glass from the table. "Now, Princess Serenity, would you like the chance to out-drink your husband-to-be?"

As he was about to fill the glass, Kasios stepped over and put three fingers over the top of the cup. Jadeite froze before pouring, glancing up into the King's slightly darkened expression for a moment.

"O-oh, right," Jadeite said awkwardly, setting the bottle back down on the table. "Totally forgot." His gaze went over towards the Moon Princess, glancing down at her stomach. "Right, sorry. I mean you're...not very far along yet, are you? It's...probably safe, right?"

"Probably," Serenity said, right hand unconsciously going to her stomach, palm resting on the fabric of her dress. "But given the circumstances, we're not taking any chances."

"Yeah. Come on, Jadeite," Kasios chided, dropping his hand from the top of the glass and pointing at Serenity's stomach. "Might be a future King of Earth in there."

"Oh, so if it ends up being a girl, you wouldn't care," Jadeite said, setting the glass back down. "Well, can't blame you there." Kasios kept from a verbal reply, settling for a dry glower, as Jadeite suddenly picked the bottle back up. "Alright, everyone give me your glasses back, let's do one more!"

"Ah, maybe one's enough," Zoisite suggested, as Jadeite took his glass over his protests and refilled it. "Maybe—"

"No no, we forgot to toast, gotta do one more," Jadeite insisted, setting the filled glass back on the table. Zoisite eyed it with trepidation as Jadeite moved on to Nephrite.

"Speaking of all that, Zoisite, remember we've got a bit of a ticking clock." Kasios turned to look at the blond member of his son's guardians. "You negotiate things any way you want to, you get everything squared away fairly, but we need everything squared away in five cycles. And the weddings has to happen in six." He gave his son a bit of a dirty look. "Bad enough that he went and planted one in like that, but I'm not having a grandchild out of wedlock." Endymion could only grimace, not turning to look at his father.

Zoisite gave a curt nod. "I'm entirely confident the finer details of the alliance will be ironed out well before that becomes a concern."

"Right, right," Kasios said, going up behind his son and clapping him on the shoulder again. "Because that's very important! Isn't it, Endymion?"

"I really think we've had this conversation enough times," Endymion grumbled from gritted teeth.

Kasios gave a little laugh. "Oh well. Guess it just means you're really potent."

Kunzite finally came to his charge's aid, bringing a small glass bottle up from underneath the table. He took a clean glass and filled it, silently sliding it over in front of the Crown Prince, giving him a tiny smile as he did so.

"Thank you," Endymion said tersely. Jadeite swung around behind him.

"Alright, I'll take this one," Jadeite said, holding his glass up high in front of him.

"Haven't you talked enough today?" Nephrite said snidely.

Jadeite cleared his throat. "Okay, uh...Endymion, buddy...you're the smartest guy I've ever met...which is good, because it means there's something good about ya—"

"Okay, Jadeite," Kunzite said, putting his palm out towards him.

"Okay, okay, seriously, uh...Endymion...you know, the Earth Kingdom has wanted a union with the Moon for...thousands of years now...and at long last, you're the one to do it. You did it before you turned twenty. You did it before you took the crown. And...you did it with love." He nodded. "That's exceptional. And it takes an exceptional person to manage that. So, to the exceptional Prince of Earth!"

"See? You can be charming when you want to be," Zoisite said just before everyone gulped down their drinks.


	2. Serendipity

Chapter 02: Serendipity

"Jadeite's fine," Endymion insisted, shrugging his inner vest off. "He's just a...self-styled comedian."

"None of my friends talk to me like that," Serenity said, dropping her slippers to the carpeted floor by the side of her bed and slipping her slim body underneath the covers.

"Well...friend might not be the...exact right word to use." Endymion placed his vest on a hook inside the wardrobe. "I mean, you get to pick your friends, right?" He reached down and loosened the waist of his pants, pulling the garment down his legs.

"So is he fine or not?" Serenity wormed her way down the bed, setting her head down on her pillow and putting her hands up behind her head.

"Well, I mean...maybe he's not as funny as he'd like to think, and...look, just chalk it up to a male thing." Endymion folded his pants and placed them over a small metal bar in the wardrobe, then quickly danced his fingers down his front, unbuttoning his shirt on the way. "He won the genetic lottery, he ended up as my guardian, and he...really knows how to talk some trash, but it's okay."

"I guess," Serenity conceded. "Really though, we weren't exaggerating...really good speech today. That kind of thing is going to be...really important going forward."

After hanging his shirt on a hook, he closed the wardrobe sliding door and turned to face his wife-to-be. Though he would obviously never bring himself to say it, her bedroom always managed to highlight the radically different direction her Kingdom was taking compared to his. In terms of size, it was quite respectable, with a high ceiling and space to spare in both directions. And there was an impressive chandelier of bright white pearls and crystal ornaments hanging from a golden chain in the middle. On the right wall, a door opened up into a walk-in closet. The walls themselves had been made into a very large canvas, an artist long ago adorning all four of them with an impossibly complex series of paint strokes that told an old fable through colorful images.

On the other hand, the size served to highlight what the room didn't have. The furnishings of the room felt somewhat minimalistic, large areas of empty space separating the various furnishings. The middle of the room was so open and blank it may as well have been a dance floor. Close inspection of the above chandelier revealed many bare strings where pearls had had fallen from without replacement. The artistry on the walls had been chipped, cracked, and dulled by the ravages of time. The plainer sections of the wall were left bare, even as they seemed to beg for some sort of decoration or smaller painting for the sake of variety.

Of their two bedrooms, he certainly knew which one he would prefer a majority of their time be spent in.

"Yeah." He approached the bed. "There can't be a misunderstanding here on what this is, it's...two strong Kingdoms consolidating their power for the benefit of all."

Serenity gave a wry smile. "There's nobody else listening, you know, it's just me here. You don't have to pitch anything to anyone."

"No, no, this is...this is an alliance, a...a merger," Endymion insisted, sitting down on the right side of Serenity's bed, looking at her over his shoulder.

"Hey now," Serenity said, pulling herself across the bed towards him. "You can call it what it is, I don't mind." She reached up and placed her hands on his shoulders. "It doesn't matter to me as long as we're together."

"Okay, well...just believe me when I say what I say about your Kingdom. I'm going to make sure that it...maintains its independence and all that." Endymion allowed himself to fall backwards onto the bed.

"I believe you," she assured him. "Now, you don't need to keep trying to comfort me. I know what I'm sitting on, I know what you're sitting on, and I know what this union does for us. And I'm fine with that!"

Endymion sat back up, then rolled himself over towards the top of the bed. "Alright, sorry, I...talk too much about that." He sighed. "So, you think you're gonna be okay seeing a lot more of the...the guys now?"

"Ohh...well, Jadeite's a bit of an...acquired taste, but I'm not worried about them," she said, snuggling up by his side. "It always throws me though, how...casual your father is. I mean, with you, maybe with me, sure...but your guardians?"

"Trust me, my father's...a lonely man. And we all need people we can have a normal, easy conversation with. For him, those people...aren't around anymore. So he gets it where he can." Endymion reached over, placing his right arm on Serenity's left shoulder. "I keep telling him he should get some new guardians for himself, but...I suppose he's still too attached to the ones he lost."

Serenity thought for a moment. "He ever consider...y'know, remarrying?"

Endymion didn't immediately reply. "I don't know," he finally answered. "We've had the conversation before, of course...don't know if he ever actually considered it."

A slightly uneasy silence hung over the couple for a moment. Serenity finally decided to break it by reaching over Endymion's body, small, slender hand rubbing along his pelvis area. "Soooo, what do you wanna do when we get up? Wanna go see the mines?"

"Mines?" Endymion repeated. "What's down there, rocks?"

"Well, mostly," Serenity admitted. "But it's a pretty big and...complex tunnel system down there, and you've never been down there."

"Yeah, complex tunnel of rocks," Endymion said, giving a slight wince as Serenity's hand continued to play about the most sensitive area on his body.

"One moment you're telling me how great the Moon is and how this is a 'mutually beneficial merger'...next moment you're talking bad about our mines," she chided.

"I'm not saying anything bad about the Moon," he insisted. "Just...when I take you on tours of Earth, you get to see...the Great Barrier Reef system, or the Abussos Falls, or the Vilma Temple."

"Okay, okay, fine," Serenity said. "We'll head back to Earth first thing after we get up, if that's the attitude you're going to have."

Endymion gave a little smirk. "I didn't say no, I'm just asking...what's down there?"

Serenity began to rub a little harder. "We can ride the carts around. It's fun. On the straightaways they get around a thousand pesses per secunda, it's exciting."

"Hey hey," Endymion said. "You need to set a good example for your people and start getting used to Earth units of measurement, sweetie."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "What happened to keeping our independence?"

"You'll be thanking us once you get used to it," Endymion insisted.

"Alright, alright, if you really hate the Moon that much—"

Endymion shook his head. "No, no, the mines...the mines sounds good, really. We'll do that. That sounds fun."

"Now that's the attitude to have." Serenity nodded, then frowned, peeling the blanket up slightly with her off-hand and peering underneath it. "What's going on down there?"

Endymion pursed his lips. "W-well, maybe it's not such a great idea, what about the baby?"

"I'm not even showing yet, don't be silly," Serenity comforted. "Now today's a day of celebration, so let's celebrate."

Endymion closed his eyes. "Okay, alright...I'm good, just...keep going, it'll go." He gave a little moan as Serenity began to rub harder.

"

"Y'know, this is the...the one thing they never taught me, I swear," Endymion babbled, leaning his head up against the wall behind the bed. "It's really kind of silly when you think about it, I once spent two days being taught which forks you're supposed to use for different foods, but they never teach you this."

Serenity laid back on the other side of the bed, arms crossed over her chest, looking up at the ceiling. She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I...sorry," Endymion mumbled.

She gave him a wry smile. "It's okay, you'll...figure it out with experience," she said.

"You think so?" Endymion said, sliding down into a lying position.

"Well, I...sincerely hope so," she added, crowding up closer to him. "Don't worry about it...everyone knows I'm marrying you for your money anyway."

"I-I mean, I...have my moments, obviously, right? I mean, I did kind of...without even wanting to, plant a—"

"That's not something to be proud of, dearie," Serenity interrupted, cuddling up to him. "Just...stop talking. It's okay. We'll get it next time."

Endymion, with a little sigh of his own, sunk into the mattress and wrapped his left arm around Serenity.

"

The silver, tube-shaped trolley zipped across the grey, flat expanse of terrain, leaving the man-made structures of the capital city behind. It was a ride as smooth as it was silent, anti-gravity pads along the bottom of the tube allowing it to hover just above ground as it cruised along. A pair of thin wisps of smoke, trailing up towards the skies, were all that it left behind as evidence that it had ever passed through at all. Those inside the trolley could close their eyes and forget they were moving at all.

Inside, a dozen chairs were set in two rows along the sides, built of polished wood carvings and purple velvet, a single alley down the middle. Serenity and Endymion sat in the front two seats, Kunzite seated right behind the Earth Prince. Serenity was watching the landscape zip by, eyes dancing from one natural landmark to another. Endymion had his head turned, leaning back towards Kunzite.

"I think I can handle this one on my own," Endymion said quietly, glancing over at Serenity before looking back to Kunzite. "I think I'd prefer it, actually, please."

"I have a job to do, Prince. There are many aspects to this job, but chief among them is doing everything within my power to keep you safe," Kunzite said through gritted teeth, keeping his voice down. "Me letting you go into an unsecured system of tunnels with a young woman and a single guide is me not doing my job."

"Well, I'm putting my foot down," Endymion replied. "Today it's...accompanying me down into the Moon mines, tomorrow it'll be sleeping in my room at the foot of the bed. Stay here or go back to the palace." With another quick glance at Serenity, he leaned in closer towards Kunzite. "I don't want to look weak in front of these people, and nothing says weak like having a bodyguard following me around everywhere." He thought for a moment. "In fact, I'd prefer you not leave the trolley at all."

"You'll have to forgive me, my Prince, if I'm dubious about the quality of the safety mechanisms down there," Kunzite protested. "I mean, look at this trolley."

Endymion's forehead wrinkled. "What about the trolley? Feels perfectly safe to me."

"Some of the cushions are frayed, and the wood polish is faded along the front," Kunzite pointed out. "If this is what they use to transport royalty, I can't help but wonder about what the miners get."

"Maybe it needs a touch-up, but it seems just as safe as anything we have on Earth," Endymion replied. "Now, if there was any danger down there, they'd never let Serenity set foot inside."

Kunzite grimaced as the trolley approached a small crater, with an artificial iron gate built into the side. "What if there's some sort of...cave-in, and you get trapped? Even if they have taken every precaution, accidents do happen."

Endymion squinted. "Well, in a cave-in, breathable air tends to run in short supply, so...the fewer people are with me, the better."

Kunzite rolled his eyes. "Suppose there's an...an avalanche of some sort?"

"Wait, wait, is this some sort of...if I die, you want to die with me, kind of thing? Because I'm not seeing how you'd save me from an avalanche even if you were there." Endymion shook his head. "You're staying here, that's final."

"Sorry that the trolley isn't to your satisfaction," Serenity suddenly spoke up. Both Prince and his guardian snapped their heads over to look at her. "We've been focusing our budget into social programs the last few years."

Slowly, Endymion turned back over his shoulder to shoot Kunzite a dirty look. Kunzite grimaced.

"O-of course," Kunzite mumbled. "S-sorry, Your Highness, I was just—"

"You boys should know how much your voices carries," she added. "They're very deep."

"I didn't say anything bad about the trolley," Endymion said quickly.

The sleek transportation tube slowed to a halt alongside the below-ground gate, the doors at the front and back of the trolley snapping open. Serenity stood up, Endymion quickly lurching over to her side and taking her hand in his. Kunzite remained seated, watching as the two descended down the single step to the surface of the Moon.

"Because really, I think it's a very nice trolley—"

Serenity snuggled up at his side, wrapping her right arm around his back. "Don't worry about it," she comforted. The two quickly covered the short distance over to the iron gates.

"I just...I just don't want you think I'm a snob or something." Endymion quickly looked the arching metal structure over, a simple iron barrier with a large pair of hinged plates in the center to provide an entrance. To the immediate right of the gate was a protruding little booth, large enough for perhaps two people, with a square on the front face removed. A single man sat inside the little booth.

"I already think that, dear," Serenity said cheekily.

Endymion stopped mid-stride, looking down at his wife-to-be. "W-wait, you think—"

"Yes, dear. You're a snob, I'm a snob, we're all snobs. That's what happens when you grow up in a palace." Before he could reply, she raised her left hand up in the air to wave at the gatekeeper. "Hey, Ales!"

Ales quickly stood up, eyes trained on her companion and going slightly wide. His back straightened imperceptibly. Serenity guided Endymion to the front of the booth.

"Suppose you two haven't met yet," Serenity said casually, gesturing over to Endymion. "Ales, I'm sure you're familiar with Prince Endymion of Earth?"

Ales's mouth flapped open slightly, then sealed again, before he spoke. "I—I wasn't told to expect the Prince," he mumbled, taking a small half-step backwards.

"Oh, well, it's not really a big deal or anything." Serenity came up to the front of the little box. "We're just gonna cruise around in the carts for a bit, same as usual. Could you give Sergio a call and tell him I'm here?"

Ales suddenly remembered himself and turned to the Prince, bowing deeply. With an awkward pirouette, he turned away to the wall at the back of the booth, hands reaching up to a rectangular screen built into the surface, fingers dancing across it.

Serenity turned to look up at Endymion. "You'll like it. It's fun."

"

Endymion swallowed a building lump in his throat down as he looked at the iron-grey cart, mounted on a pair of steel tracks that extended off into the distance, down deeper into the dark caves. He peered inside the rectangular vehicle, seeing three wooden planks set up as seating, enough room to fit six. He reached his right hand up and placed it on the rim of the cart, gripping it and giving it a little push down the tracks, feeling the slight movement and watching the wheels rotate slightly.

"Something the matter?" Serenity asked from behind Endymion. He turned to look over his shoulder, a thin smile on his lips, seeing a male figure standing next to Serenity in his peripheral vision.

"Oh, uh, no," Endymion said, turning around to face her. "It's just...y'know, wheels." He pointed at the man next to Serenity, middle aged with brown hair. "This is Sergio?"

Serenity nodded. "Yes. He's been working down here since before I knew how to walk."

Sergio bowed in Endymion's direction. "Pleasure to meet a Prince, Your Majesty." Serenity walked back over towards the entrance of the mine, where a pair of sentries stood guard.

Endymion gave him a small nod and smile. "Y-yes, pleasure to meet you as well." He turned to look down the path of the steel tracks, quickly losing sight of them due to the darkness that quickly engulfed the passage down deeper into the Moon. "So, bit of a blast from the past, right?" He gestured down towards the tracks. "I mean…" he gave a small nervous laugh, "...anti-gravity pads haven't made their way down here?"

Sergio walked up to the cart, vaulting the side and neatly slotting himself into a seat against the back. "No room in the budget for that. But wheels get you where you're going just fine." He winced. "Sorry, Your Majesty, I'm...I am just far too used to contractions."

Endymion shrugged. "Use them, I don't mind." He pointed down the pitch-black path. "Not that I know anything about mining, but I've seen the ones on Earth once or twice, and...seems a little dark down there. You could maybe string some lights along the walls."

Sergio nodded. "We've had to cut back in the illumination department as well," he conceded, left hand tapping at a switch inside the cart, to the left of his seat. A dozen lenses along the outside of the cart lit up, ejecting light in all directions. "People bring their own lights down when they need it."

"Okay," Endymion said, leaning in towards Sergio. "I need to ask, please don't be offended, I just need to know...honest now, what's the...mortality rate in these things? What about injuries? Just...be honest."

Sergio hit another control button to his left, the cart sparking to life with a gentle hum, shuddering for a split second as the motors on the wheels warmed up. "We've had no cart-related injuries in the mines in one hundred and eighty-one cycles, Your Highness."

Endymion put his hands against the edge of the cart, looking down into it, pursing his lips. "F...fifteen years, are you sure? That...doesn't seem entirely possible. N-no offense, again, it just doesn't...look that safe." His mind went to Kunzite's warnings of a few moments ago.

Sergio nodded. "It's safe," he assured him. "We've allowed the heir to the Moon Kingdom to ride in these things since she was very young, we'd never do that unless we trusted it completely."

"Yes, that's how I viewed it." Endymion warily looked at the transport, glancing down at the wheels, the grooved edges slotting in perfectly with the tracks. "It's just...there's a reason why anti-gravity vehicles are being used in most situations these days, it's...having points of contact with the ground, that's basically where all the unpredictability factors in, and given your apparent budget restraints, I just have to wonder about...safety protocol."

"Very fair," Sergio admitted. "Your Majesty, think of it this way." He spread his arms out to the sides of the cart. "We can't afford much of anything down here, you've probably figured that out by now. And there is nothing in this industry more expensive than work-related injury and death claims. So whatever funding we get goes right into making sure everything is safe as can be."

Endymion nodded, then sighed. "Well...alright."

"If anything happens to you or Princess Serenity while they're in these carts, I'm the first person who ends up on the chopping block," he added. "I'm very aware of that."

Serenity stepped up from behind Endymion, a small leather sack strapped across her back and a second identical one in her hands. She handed it over to Endymion, then jumped into the front left of the cart.

"Make sure you strap that on," Sergio warned Endymion. "Just in case you get lost or separated, you'll need that."

"C'mon!" Serenity pointed down at the seat at her right side. "Let's go!"

Ignoring the slight uneasiness in his stomach, Endymion stepped over the rim of the cart and settled himself down next to his fiance. He looped the strap on the leather sack up above his head, then tightened it around his chest. He glanced around as Sergio dragged his fingers across a panel behind him on the cart.

"You know...I think this might be the first time I've ridden in something with wheels," he mused quietly as the cart eased forward. Quickly, he reached over to his right and pulled a small hinged iron bar across his lap, securing him in.

"

Endymion reached over, behind Serenity, grabbing her long blonde pigtails and pulling them back into the safety of the cart. His right hand remained firmly attached to the small handle to his right, knuckles white with the force of his grip. The cart made a sudden right turn, Endymion almost falling into Serenity as he tried to gather her hair with one hand.

"It's fine!" Serenity yelled over the roar of the rushing wind, the cart accelerating to top speed on a straightaway, zooming past a seemingly infinitely-repeating set of stone walls.

"It might get tangled in the wheels!" Endymion insisted back, taking her two long bundles of hair and holding it between her right shoulder and his left side.

"Hasn't happened yet!" Serenity replied.

Endymion felt a tap on his left shoulder. He turned over it, finding Sergio leaning up close to him.

"Your Majesty! You want to stop at the next port?!" he said loudly, the cart zooming out of the mouth of one tunnel, passing through a more open area that had been mined out, before ducking into another tunnel.

Endymion threw a glance up towards Serenity, then looked back to Sergio. "Keep going!"

"

Endymion leaned up against the wall of the tunnel, taking in a deep breath. "Whew!" he muttered to himself. "Yeah, you were...you were right, they do get going pretty good on those straightaways."

"You okay?" Serenity asked, jumping over the edge of the cart and walking over to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted. "Just give me a bit."

"We're pretty far down," Sergio said, also stepping out of the cart. "Eighty leugas roughly."

"Dolichos," Endymion said, still slightly breathless. "That's what we call them on Earth."

"That's right," Sergio said. "It'll take a while to get used to that."

"It's easy," Endymion insisted, pushing himself away from the rock formation he had used for temporary support. "You've got the length of a single pace, a...haploun, or most people just call them paces. Averaged size pace. Then it's just multiples of ten. Ten paces in a kalamos, ten kalamos in a pletron, ten pletrons in a dolicho. It's a very clean system, you'll like it once you get used to it."

Sergio gave a little chuckle. "I'll take your word for it." He grabbed a circular lens attached to the strap across his torso and gave it a right twist, immediately drawing a searing beam of light from it and projecting it against the wall.

Endymion looked around the tunnel, both down further into the depths of the mines and back the way they came. "So...you like working down here?"

Sergio shrugged. "Don't know much of anything else. I'll admit, it's not as rewarding as it used to be."

Endymion nodded. "How are things down here? I mean, if you're allowed to say, what minerals do you guys find down here?"

Sergio gave another small chuckle. "I suppose this'll all basically be yours in due time." He cleared his throat. "Mostly silver. Unfortunately. Healthy amount of iron and copper. Some gold and a few gems. Every now and then we get really lucky and find some Boron Crystal, but it's mostly silver."

Endymion gazed down the tunnel that lead further downward. "Rotten luck, how things change."

"Our bad luck, someone else's gain," Sergio said. "Was inevitable, really. Look at how small the Moon is compared to...well, every other independent Kingdom out there." He looked at Endymion. "Have to be a fool to not see it coming."

"Well, if the history books we get over on Earth are accurate, I can hardly blame anyone for assuming the best." Endymion licked his lips.

"Oh, so you're familiar, Your Highness?"

"Hey!" Serenity called out, back in the cart and clearly antsy to take another extended joyride through the mines. "I'm ready when you are!"

"I know!" Endymion called back. "Just hold on!" He turned back to Sergio. "More or less, but...you can tell your version of things and we'll compare."

Sergio bit down on his cheek. "Recorded history on the Moon only goes back about...thirty-eight thousand cycles, right before we started to have interplanetary travel. W-what's that...three thousand Earth-years?"

"Three thousand two hundred almost, yeah," Endymion said.

"And I'm sure those old scriptures contain plenty of...hyperbole and inaccuracy, I can't pretend to have been there. But back then, I can certainly understand why we thought we'd never run out of exports." He shook his head. "Carnelian Crystal, right on the surface, didn't even have to dig for it." He gave a small smile. "Nobody else in the galaxy had so much as a pinch of the stuff. You want to talk about negotiation leverage, there you go. Might have been a little careless with it. If you believe the ancient murals and drawings, every structure on the surface was made of Carnelian Crystal. So, twenty-five hundred of your years ago, when...exporting goods became the lifeblood of the economy, everyone wanted a taste."

"We've got a couple temples on Earth made from the stuff," Endymion said. "Really incredible."

Sergio nodded. "Again, hyperbole, but...the old scriptures swear you could take a lump, a single libra...y'know, about the size of my fist, give it to a powerful-enough psychic, and they could mold it into a...y'know, structure, house big enough for a family of eight. Don't even ask me about the science behind that." He shook his head. "So we rode that for...I guess it would be fifteen hundred years. Then the well went dry."

"Sounds more or less like what they teach on Earth," Endymion said.

"But hey, it wasn't so bad at first. We started digging, and lo and behold, we found silver. A lot of it." He grimaced. "Maybe too much. Thousand years ago, it was actually worth something."

Endymion shifted a little, glancing back over towards the wall to his left. "Yeah...sorry about that."

"Oh, it wasn't just Earth," Sergio replied. "It was everyone...they basically found an entire mountain made of silver on Neptune, then it showed up on Venus...supply had outstripped demand. Had to send the stuff out faster and faster, got harder to find buyers, and...well, here we are now."

There was a short pause, Endymion chewing on his lower lip.

"A-at least there's a lot of it," Endymion mumbled.

" _Was_ a lot of it," he corrected. "We've practically dug our way through the entire Moon at this point. At the rate things are going...give it twenty years and there won't be anywhere left to look." He sighed. "Can't squeeze blood out of a stone. Not that we haven't been trying these last hundred cycles. Most of of the time, we find enough stuff to pay all the workers at least."

"Well…" Endymion paused, then turned to Sergio. "Wait... _most_ of the time?"

He nodded. "Some cycles we're up. Others we're down."

Endymion turned back towards the wall, forehead furrowed in thought as he tried to think of something to say.

"Don't worry, I know what you're thinking. Not the smartest investment by the crown." He glanced over his shoulder at Serenity, who was still seated in the minecart with her back turned to them, tapping her fingers on the rim of the cart. "I suppose the logic is...keep looking and hope this place has one last gift to give. That or just...give up."

"What do you think?" Endymion asked.

He gave a wry smile. "What do I think? Well...I like to think this is a really special place in the galaxy. And I don't believe it's going to just...go out with a whimper."

Endymion patted him on the back. "That's the spirit."

"Come oooonnnnnnnn!" Serenity whined. "While we're young, please?!"

"Alright, alright!" Endymion said over his shoulder. "We're coming!"

"Can we go deeper?" Serenity asked.

"Afraid not, Your Majesty," Sergio replied. "Past this point, things get a lot more unstable. Section one-eighty-two is pushing it as it is. We head back up, maybe take the long route down seventy-two and seventy-one."

Endymion took one step towards the cart, but paused on hearing a mechanical whir from his right, from behind the stone wall, as well as a series of abrasive crunching. He stared in the general direction of the sound as it grew louder, noticing the wall starting to shake ever so slightly.

"Alright Your Majesty, it'll be more of an uphill climb this time, so it should be a little slower and more controlled," Sergio said, jumping into the cart and turning around, face falling as he saw the Prince of Earth hadn't followed him. "Your Majesty?"

Endymion took a couple cautious steps back as the grinding got to an ear-splitting volume. A circular section of the tunnel wall suddenly began to crumble, being reduced to rubble and falling to the side as a circle-shaped piece of metal burst through into the tunnel. On the face of the circle were a dozen glowing-red bubbles, Endymion immediately able to feel the intense heat emitting from them.

The large piece of mining equipment slid forward easily, emerging completely from the hole it had created, revealing a single worker manning it, holding onto two large handles on the back to guide it.

"Who's there?" he called out, peering out from behind the driller, a bright light emanating from a lens on his chest.

Endymion shuffled to his left, away from the menacing front of the driller. Sergio and Serenity, having leapt from the cart to run over to Endymion's side, came up next to him.

"The manifest didn't have anybody—" he began, mouth quickly zipping and eyes bulging as he made out the tall, thin figure he had nearly run over. "—holy shit!"

"Hey, watch it," Sergio grunted. "Don't worry, it's fine, he's just down here for a little joyride."

The drillman, however, remained frozen in shock, eyes glued to the Prince, right finger making a small movement on the back of the drill to deactivate the energy bubbles on the face.

"N-nice drill," Endymion said, walking up past the drillman and poking his head into the hole in the wall. It was a tunnel, maybe just three paces in length, that opened up into a massive empty chamber, towering wall of rock on the right and massive, gaping crevice on the left, a small ledge allowing a dangerous passage across. "Wow...did you guys do this? This must have taken years." Thoughtlessly, he stepped forward, passing through the small tunnel and out onto the ledge.

"N-no, this was like this when we got here," Sergio said quickly, following Endymion. "Your Highness, please, this place hasn't been secured yet, it might be unstable."

As if on cue, the chunk of rock Endymion was standing on crumbled into rubble, leaving the Prince standing on air. With no time to act, he slipped down, grunting in shock as his back hit the stone wall of the crevice. As he began to slide down the rock face, helped only by a slight outward slant that slowed him ever-so-slightly, he could hear assorted screams from behind him.

He turned and blindly grabbed at the wall, looking for something to grab. His hand found nothing but sheer and smooth rock, and his efforts just caused him to begin to tumble out of control. Suddenly, his body slipped into a large gap in the cliff wall, sliding off deeper into the caves, the force of impact from the landing in the tunnel's curved surface knocking the wind from his lungs. His slid far out of sight, gravity pushing him into a place unknown.

"

At the mouth of the tunnel, Serenity stood, mouth gaping in horror, eyes wide as she stared at where her fiance had just been. Sergio stood just one step out on the ledge, similarly terrified by what had just transpired.

"Oh shit, I'm DEAD!" Sergio gasped out, spinning around and almost running into Serenity as he tried to go back through to the main tunnel.

Serenity's mouth flapped open slightly, then regained use of her legs and quickly turned to run back into the main tunnel as well, Sergio following. The drillman remained standing there, seemingly still in shock.

"Your Highness, please tell me he got the locator up at the entrance," Sergio pleaded, marching towards the cart, Serenity one step in front of him.

"Yeah, of course!" Serenity said breathlessly, leaping into the cart, Sergio slotting in behind her and immediately turning towards the little control panel against the back side. "S-Sergio, I—I...w-what do we—"

"I-it's okay," Sergio said with little conviction. "We'll go up to hub seven and ping his locator, and hope it works!" The cart hummed to life and the wheels cranked forth, sending the two rocketing up the tracks the way they had come from.

"W-why wouldn't it work?!" Serenity could feel her eyes tearing as the initial shock wore off to be replaced by fear. "A-aren't those supposed to work through anything?!"

"Yes," he answered. "But we have no idea how deep he went!"

The cart sped past a bend in the tunnel, making record time, Serenity not enjoying the ride at all this time.

"

Endymion coughed raggedly for several seconds, eyes squeezed shut as a cloud of dust was kicked up from his impact with the rock surface. He yanked his arm out from underneath him and tried to swat the cloud away.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, finding absolutely nothing in the pitch-blackness of the cave before him. He sucked down a deep breath, trying to alleviate the pain in his chest. Slowly, his lungs filled. His hands felt around, finding smooth stone all around him. As his hands crawled forward, however, he felt a lip, as the tunnel he was in seemed to expand. Afraid to move without the benefit of sight, he calmed himself before acting. After a silent moment, he propped himself up slightly and fumbled with the leather strap on his chest, feeling along it, finally finding the circular lens. He twisted it, and to his relief, it fired off a brilliant beam of light.

He looked down, thankful to see he was not hanging over a bottomless gap. In fact, the ground was right beneath him, as the small tunnel he had slid down opened into a larger one, the smooth surfaces and steady cuts indicating the tunnel had been forged artificially. He pulled himself forward, getting to his feet and looking down the long path before him.

He jumped at a series of clicks emitting from the leather bag strapped to his back. Quickly, he pulled the bag up over his head and kneeled down on the floor, setting it down in front of him. Thankfully, the sack had remained sealed through his fall. Undoing the four clasps at the lip, he ripped the bag open.

The source of the noise was at the top of the bag's contents, a spherical ball the size of his fist. He picked it up, a small indicator light on the surface blinking blue. He spun it around in his hands until he found the 'LOCATOR' label on one side of the smooth surface. Slowly, he tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling, a handful of paces above his head.

He quickly searched through the remaining contents of the bag, finding a pack of crackers and bottle of small pills, along with a water canteen and three flares. Sealing the bag, he looked around, both at the small rock tube he had come in from, and the larger tunnel in front of him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he carefully considered his situation.

"Okay...okay…" he muttered under his breath. "The locator was activated remotely...if they can turn it on then...they'll be able to pick up the signal too, that's...that's logical."

Nevertheless, he couldn't help but again glance up at the very-thick rock ceiling above his head and wonder if the pulses were strong enough to get through countless layers of the stuff. He bent down, looking at the ground of the open tunnel in front of him, placing his palm down on it. He put his left ear against the ground, looking down the tunnel. It seemed to ramp upwards, at least slightly. And these tunnels were obviously cut for mining, so it had to lead somewhere…

Cautiously, he stepped forward, pausing with each step as he tried to test the ground before putting his full weight on it. His trek forward was slow and rather uneventful, the tunnel making a slight turn to the left as he went on.

After fifty paces, give or take a couple, he came to a fork. The path seemed to continue to the right, but there was an alternate tunnel that split out to the left side. Grimacing, he shined his light down the left route, trying to judge the path ahead. He again kneeled down, rubbing his right palm on the ground, looking for any sort of slope.

A small glint about half a dozen paces down the path caught his eye, distracting him from his decision on which way to go. He stood up, the light beam from his chest catching something on the ground. A quick glance to his right, he slowly stepped forward, closing in on the object. He kneeled down over it.

At first look, it appeared to be a piece of glass, crystal clear, easy to see directly through. It was about the size of his index finger, a couple of roughly-cut lines down the length of it. He slowly picked it up, holding it between his right thumb and index finger, lifting it up as he stood back up straight.

He turned it around in his fingers, observing it from every angle. His initial guess of glass remained a fair guess, as no perspective offered anything but a shockingly clear view of the rock wall on the other side of it. And then, he lowered it slightly, just a tad closer to the light on his chest, and the crystal's surface suddenly became reflective. He dropped the crystal in shock, fumbling it around in his fingers before catching it again. This caused it to return to a transparent state, and it laid in his hands, for all the world resembling a crude piece of glass art.

Slowly, he brought it back closer to his chest, closer to the source of bright light, until it again suddenly transformed into a tiny mirror. He stared at himself on one of the flat sides of the little crystal for several moments, feeling his mouth go dry as he processed this.

He engulfed the little crystal in his hand and looked up at the walls on either side of him. He went up to the right side, taking the light from his chest and bending it around, closely analysing the rock surface as best as his eyes could manage. It didn't take long for him to find it. A few steps to his left, there was a little indentation in the wall, about the size of his finger. And to the left of this little mark was a thin little vein of a crystal-clear substance, trailing down the tunnel, around a bend about twenty paces away from Endymion.

Quickly, he went up to the little crater in the wall, pulling out the crystal in his hand and putting it up to it. He flipped it about in his fingers until a smooth face was facing outwards, then pushed it into the gap. It was a perfect fit, slotting into the gap and rejoining the vein it had no doubt been part of before.

Endymion's breath hitched, his left hand running across the smooth vein, admiring it's clarity. If you weren't looking for it, it wouldn't be hard to not even notice it at all, instead seeing right through it. Grabbing the light on his chest, he twisted it off the strap and lifted it up to the vein. Sure enough, several paces worth of the crystal became reflective.

Endymion swallowed down hard, eyes glued to the vein as he took the small piece of it back in his hand. He took three steps down the tunnel, looking down, seeing the deposit continue on beyond his view. There was a bend not far ahead, he could at least follow it that far and—

"Your Majesty!"

Endymion froze in his tracks, twisting his head over his shoulder as the pair of words echoed off the walls. It had definitely come from that direction. He stood there, waiting.

"Your Highness! If you can hear me, stay where you are! We're coming to get you!"

"I'm fine!" Endymion yelled back, cupping his hands around his mouth. "I'm well, I'm not hurt!"

He waited, counting the beats as his own voice carried through the tunnels.

"Good! Stay there, Your Highness, we're coming to get you!"

Just a couple beats. They weren't far away.

Endymion glanced to his left, at the long vein of crystal trailing down the path. He then turned his focus to the small piece in his hand. He quickly shoved it into the inside pocket of his jacket, then shined the light back down the tunnel the way he had come, quickly jogging down it.

"No no, it's quite alright, I'm coming, I'm following your voice!" Endymion called out, getting back to the fork. He whipped the sack off of his back and ripped the flap open, reaching in and pulling out one of the flares. He bent down and dropped it to the floor right inside the mouth of the tunnel he had investigated, then taking off down the one path he hadn't been down yet.

"Your Majesty, please just stay where you are, it's not stable!"

Endymion ignored the request, however, as he swiftly jogged down the tunnel, putting distance between him and his discovery. His footsteps echoed off the walls of the cave as he went. Fortunately, there were no more forks in the path, and before long he could see a small light source dancing along the walls in front of him.

"Alright, I'm here!" he cried out, quickly taking the corner and stepping into a cone of powerful light. Two men stood there, one of them Sergio and the other a stranger.

Sergio inhaled deeply, falling to his knees at the sight of the Prince. "Oh, thank the Gods," he moaned. "You're alive!"

"Better than just alive, actually," Endymion said, trying to sound casual. "Just a...a little jolt." The man to Sergio's right dropped to one knee in front of the Prince, Endymion quickly beckoning him back up.

"Oh...they'll probably still kill me," Sergio said quietly to himself.

"Hey, this was my fault, okay?" Endymion insisted. "You don't worry about a thing, I'm the idiot who...fell off that ledge, you had nothing to do with it."

"I'm supposed to keep you from unsecured areas," Sergio muttered. "Been doing it for a long time with Serenity, I've got no excuse."

"Don't worry about anything," Endymion insisted, waving his hand dismissively. "You're fine, I'll see to it personally if I have to." He gave his head a little shake. "O-oh yeah, where's Serenity?"

Sergio gave a small smile. "Practically had to tie her down back at the cart hub. Crying like you wouldn't believe." He shook his head. "I almost started crying when the locator pinged us back and you were here of all places."

A small lump popped up in Endymion's stomach. "U-uh, what's...what's here?"

Sergio wordlessly pointed at the wall right next to Endymion. Endymion turned to look, finding a large slab of wood propped up, bearing large red words.

WARNING: TUNNEL AHEAD UNSECURED AND DANGEROUS. ACCESS FORBIDDEN.

"Huh," Endymion said, reaching up and rubbing his chin. "I, I actually came through from the...the other side," he muttered. "C-could I ask why, I...I didn't notice anything over there." He pointed over his shoulder.

Sergio grimaced. "About...three-quarters of a cycle ago, we sent two miners down there to survey things, standard procedure. Except for the part where they never came back. Of course, accidents do happen in this line of work...so we sent another two down to confirm it." He sighed. "And then...they didn't come back either."

"Huh," Endymion mused to himself. "W-wait, this…" he pointed at the walls on either side of him "...no way, look at the tunnels. Back that way too, the walls are perfectly cut, these tunnels have been drilled out artificially. How can you not know what's inside them?"

"Oh, someone definitely dug these out artificially," Sergio agreed. "Wasn't us, though. As near as we can tell, these were down here back when the mines were first being dug. A lot of the tunnels down here were dug out before civilization as we know it got down here. Those who were here before us, I suppose."

Endymion nodded. "S-sorry, finish your story."

"We don't exactly have the manpower to spare down here, so I didn't want to send another down at that point. Someone volunteered though, and who am I to deny someone the opportunity to figure out what happened to a friend? Now, this one did come back pretty quickly...said he went down one of the paths and set off some sort of...fire trap. Didn't stick around long enough to see what it was. In any case, we've got enough problems without employees burning to death, so we threw up that sign. Guess we're saving this area for last." He shrugged.

Endymion nodded slowly. "W-well that's...that's quite something." He cleared his throat. "Say, just out of...curiosity, h-how far did I fall? Like, what...section did I end up in?"

"Fortunately, not too far," Sergio replied. "Maybe three quarters of a leuga, or...dolicho. And I suppose this would be...section three-one-four. Now, we should get back before the Princess loses her mind."

"Right, right…" Endymion nodded. Sergio turned and began a trek down the tunnel, his search partner and Endymion following closely. "Three-one-four, yeah…"

"

The minecart braked to a halt, cruising into the primary hub and stopping among several dozen other identical carts. Endymion practically being tackled into the seat of the cart by Serenity hugging onto his left arm, sobbing into his shoulder.

"Alright, okay, sweetie, we're back at the surface, that's enough," Endymion mumbled nervously, trying to push her off of his shoulder. "You've had your cry."

"Y-you SCARED me!" Serenity yelped, giving slightly and leaning back towards her seat. "I-I thought that...I-I t-t-thought…"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Endymion said. "Now please, compose yourself—" Endymion glanced up, catching the eye of his loyal bodyguard Kunzite, standing by the exit the mines, arms crossed over his chest. "O-oh, you...you told him."

"Sorry your Majesty," Sergio said under his breath. "It just...it made sense."

Endymion stood up and reluctantly stepped over the lip of the cart, Serenity finally letting go of him enough for him to break away from her grip. Figuring to get it over with, he briskly crossed the few steps over to his guardian, a wry smile on his face.

"So...looks like someone isn't doing their job as royal bodyguard, huh?" Endymion said quietly with a joking vernacular.

"I'm not even going to say anything," Kunzite said evenly. "And I don't see any reason your father needs to hear about this."

"W-well, I appreciate that," Endymion replied quickly. "Seriously though—"

"I just hope you understand now," Kunzite interrupted. "And I hope you learned something."

"Oh, absolutely," Endymion said. "I learned quite a bit, we'll talk about that later." He reached up and clapped Kunzite on the shoulder. "Later."

Kunzite's left eyebrow drew up ever so slightly, but he didn't get the chance to inquire further. Serenity popped up at Endymion's side, wrapping her right arm around his back.

"A-alright," Serenity mumbled, wiping at the inside corner of her eyes. "I'm okay now, I'm okay…let's head on back, I'll call ahead and tell them to get the ship ready."

"W-well, let's hold off on that, actually," Endymion countered quickly. "T-the ship, I mean, don't call ahead, we'll...let's wait a bit."

Serenity looked perplexed, looking up at her fiance. "D-don't you wanna get back to Earth as soon as possible?"

Endymion shrugged. "I mean, I'm already here, might not come back for awhile...given the situation, I could stand to...stick around for a little longer. I mean, in a few cycles, my family will sort of...own this place, couldn't hurt to look things over a little more. It'll look good to the public, right?"

Serenity blinked a couple times, clearly surprised. "U-uh, okay, when do you wanna leave?"

"We'll see how it goes," Endymion said quickly, sidestepping past Kunzite. "Alright, back to the castle!"

"

"I know I said I wasn't going to say anything," Kunzite began, staying a step-and-a-half behind the Prince as he marched down the wide hallway, bright beams of light beating down on them through the windows along the wall to their left. "But it might not be a bad idea to remind you of who you are and how important you are."

Endymion didn't break stride, turning slightly to the right towards a small white door in the wall, quickly wrenching the knob open and stepping inside a pearly white chamber. Kunzite stopped at the threshold, arms crossing over his chest. Endymion turned to look over his shoulder as he grabbed the edge of the door.

"Well?" Endymion asked.

"I'll wait right here," Kunzite said flatly.

Endymion glanced behind Kunzite. "Don't you think in light of what happened earlier today...you might want to...accompany me?"

Kunzite managed to keep any sort of reaction from his face, the two of them standing there in the most awkward of silences.

"I...I'm serious, you should...you should come in with me," Endymion whispered. "Come on." He jerked his head in towards the interior of the room.

Kunzite stepped forward onto the tile of the small chamber, taking one step to the right so Endymion could close the door, again somehow keeping any sort of telling reaction from his expression. He did, however, glance over to the right, at the marble sink against the far wall and the pearly white latrine across from it.

"Right," Kunzite grumbled. Endymion turned around and pulled open a small door in the wall, revealing three shelves of various-sized towels. "Now, the Kingdom of Earth is arguably the most valuable in all the galaxy, and it's a rather compelling argument. You are the lone heir to this Kingdom. You're a single death, apologies for being morbid, away from being named King."

"Right, right," Endymion said under his breath, closing the towel closet and going over to the sink, all the while looking up at the walls and ceiling.

"So, when I advocate for caution in the future, I...w-what are you doing?" he asked, as Endymion spun the faucet-head on the sink, drawing a buzzing little stream of clear, cold water down into the drain.

Endymion turned away from the sink, beckoning Kunzite towards him. "Alright, I need you to focus for a moment." His voice was low, barely above a whisper.

Kunzite hesitantly stepped towards him. "I'm always focused, what are you—"

"Like I said earlier...I learned quite a bit down in those caves, and I think it might be...good to share that new knowledge with you."

Kunzite opened his mouth slightly, then shut it, letting his arms drop to his sides. Slowly, Endymion reached up to his inside chest pocket. His hand emerged in a closed fist, as he again glanced shiftily to the left and right, as if someone might suddenly walk in.

Finally, he put his hand out and opened it up to reveal the small piece of crystal in his palm. He held it up just in front of Kunzite's chest. Kunzite looked down at it for several moments.

"What is this?" Endymion asked, voice as low as he could get it.

"A piece of glass?" Kunzite suggested, reaching up and taking it from Endymion's palm.

"That's what I thought," Endymion said.

Kunzite pinched it between his fingers and lifted it up in front of his face. "Well, I think that's your answer." He spun it around a couple times. "Crudely cut, perhaps an amateur attempt at a decorative item."

Endymion reached up and pinched the end between his thumb and forefinger, sliding it out of Kunzite's hand, and moving it over towards the spherical light source on the wall behind the sink. The crystal immediately became reflective, taking the images around it and copying them back to the two men looking at it. Kunzite stared at it, watching as the little crystal mimicked his flat facial expression.

"Yeah," Endymion said, pulling it back from the light source, reverting it back to a transparent state.

Kunzite grabbed it back. "Where did you find this?" he asked, voice just fractionally louder than the sound of flowing water in the basin.

"Down in the mines, when I got separated." Endymion watched as Kunzite examined the mineral.

"Who else saw it?" he continued.

"No one," he answered. "I hid it before they found me." He leaned in closer to his guardian. "And there was a lot more of it. Now, I only know of one particular substance that reacts to a focused light in that manner." He gave Kunzite a meaningful look. "Am I forgetting something?"

Kunzite shoved the crystal into his front chest pocket. "Let's go find out."

"

Nothing on the Moon had been spared the wrath of repeated budget cuts, including the university. So Endymion wasn't overly surprised to find the condition of the laboratory substandard. The chairs, lined up by an extended counter in the middle of the room, didn't even match. He occasionally felt his shoes stick to the floor for a brief moment as he passed over what was likely the scene of a previous accident that hadn't been completely cleaned up. The shelves against the right wall supported the weight of glass beakers, dishes, and vials, some of them chipped and warped. Frayed and worn lab jackets hung from hooks along the wall. Two of the dozen light sources on the ceiling refused to spark to life, creating an uneven illumination in the room. As Endymion gave a close look at a mechanical liquid distiller in the back right corner of the room, he couldn't but think about his grandfather, harping on the importance of providing quality education to the populace to lay the groundwork for a thriving civilization a generation later. This didn't feel like the ideal setup to train the future Moon citizens.

"Don't they teach level eight and nine courses in here?" Endymion mumbled to himself, turning his focus to Kunzite.

"Yes." His guardian had slid open one of the glass cabinets against the right-side wall to pull out a cube-shaped device about the size of his head, a little black screen on one of the four faces and a small hole on the top. "Please try not to touch anything." He set the device down on the counter.

"Did we really have to come all the way out here?" Endymion asked, walking up next to Kunzite as his knight reached inside a small recess on the right face of the cube and pushed a switch. A tiny blue light flickered open right next to the mouth of the hole on top of the cube and the screen displayed the numbers '00.00%' in a bright red color. "Must have been a reader somewhere in the palace."

"If this is what I suspect, I don't want to be in the palace when we confirm it," Kunzite replied. He reached inside his chest pocket and pulled the crystal out. Quickly, he dropped the crystal through the hole, letting it slide to the bottom of the box. "There was more of it?" he questioned.

"I didn't get a chance to see _how_ much more, but...there was definitely a lot more than just this," Endymion reiterated. "And, based off my probing, they don't seem to know about it."

"It just seems...highly unlikely to me that they could possibly miss something like this," Kunzite muttered as the cube buzzed to life. The numbers on the small screen starting to scramble and scroll through a variety of readouts.

"I doubt Queen Serenity would be aware of something this significant and not tell the Agency, it's not like her," Endymion countered. "And, not that I'm a geologist, but...have you ever seen it so clear and transparent—"

And then, the screen stopped running through numbers, finally settling on a result. Kunzite, for all of his training over the years on keeping calm in any situation, and not giving away anything, couldn't stop from going wide-eyed and gasping as the machine gave it's final answer.

Endymion was not quite so subdued, jaw dropping open as he spied the red numbers on the little screen.

They stared and blinked in awe, expecting that one of these times they might open their eyes and the readout might have changed to something more reasonable, more expected.

It didn't.

"Holy Mother of _God_ ," Endymion choked out, as he continued to take in the number displayed, a proclamation of tremendous magnitude.

 _99.42%_


	3. The Cradle of Civilization

Chapter 03: The Cradle of Civilization

"I have a very special treat for you today, Your Highness."

Endymion looked up from behind the small desk, folding his hands together in front of him atop it. Scholar Riobard, a middle-aged man with long gray hair and a short gray beard, set a small velvet bag down in front of his Endymion's little hands.

Endymion stared down at it, as if expecting it to move.

"Well, go on, young Prince," Riobard instructed, gesturing towards the bag. "Go on."

Endymion quickly reached out, opening the drawstring atop the bag and peering inside the dark little sack. A little gemstone, clear but faintly foggy, sat inside. Carefully, his little fingers reached inside and plucked it from the protective bag, pulling it out in his left hand.

"You know what that is?" Riobard asked. "I think you do."

"I-I think so," Endymion said, voice cracking slightly as he reached underneath his desk, his right hand fumbling around amid a collection of tools and trinkets, until his fingers clutched down on a thick black rod. He pulled it out, fingertips finding a small button along the side and pressing it, sending a powerful beam of light out from the end. He leveled the flashlight down at the gem between his left hand's fingers. Immediately, the semi-transparent stone became reflective, a rough mirror, although the images it reflected back were slightly hazy and unclear. There was no mistaking this unique reaction to a strong lightsource.

"And now you know so," Riobard said, bending down a bit towards the stone. "Although typically tough to distinguish from poor quality glass or any other clear crystal, raw Imperium Crystal becomes reflective when exposed to strong light sources."

Endymion blinked down at the small gem for a few seconds, then looked up to Riobard. "Raw Imperium Crystal?"

"Yes! Typically, you'll only find raw Imperium in one of three places. One, in an Imperium mine. Two, on a Galactic Imperium Agency freighter. Three, inside the vaults of the Galactic Imperium Agency station. So, cherish today, Your Majesty, for I managed to convince the Agency that the education of a young Prince of Earth was worth borrowing a little bit for a day."

Endymion clicked the flashlight off, watching the crystal resume it's dormant state, then clicked it back on, observing the reflective surfaces. Even at the tender age of seven, the precocious Prince knew enough to have an appreciation of this scientific wonder.

"And, if I don't have that returned to the Agency tonight, I'll be spending the rest of my life on board their station in a prison cell, so please don't lose that, Your Highness," he added. "But yes. You're holding a raw Imperium Crystal in your fingers, the most valuable, powerful, and important substance in all the galaxy."

Endymion set the gem down on the desk in front of him. "I-I know...I know it powers hyperspace jumps—"

"All space travel runs on Imperium, young Prince," Riobard added. "Without Imperium, every single spaceship in this galaxy would become completely subject to the whims of orbital forces, dead in their tracks. The communication beams that allow us to contact people on other planets with mere seconds of delay, poof, gone. Anti-gravity pads turn into doorstops, holographic projectors become frisbees, high-density storage systems get wiped and turned into anchors, computers get bricked...most modern heating and cooling systems cease to function, everything that makes civilization civilized, powered by Imperium. Without it, we're back to the stone age, digging around in the dirt and chiseling murals in the walls of caves."

Endymion hung on every word his tutor had to say, letting the magnitude of his words slowly digest in his brain, taking in and fully grasping the importance of this particular mineral.

"Most of the technological advances of the last three thousand years are powered by Imperium. The lifeblood of the galactic economy relies on it, as it makes trade between worlds possible." He nodded. "If we ever actually stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and thought about things...we might actually be terrified of how much we've come to rely on the stuff."

"Well...surely there's plenty of it, right?" Endymion questioned.

Though it was somewhat inappropriate, Riobard could help but bark out a harsh little laugh. "Less and less everyday, Your Majesty. Every single civilization in this solar system depending on it for practically everything, trillions of individuals with their hands out for it...gone are the days of us always finding more than we use. Long gone. In fact...should you keep in good shape and eat healthy, young Prince, you may even live to see a time where it dries up, and one by one, the threads that tie our civilization together...snap."

Endymion gulped down hard. "N-not much of an incentive to stay in shape or eat healthy," he muttered.

"That's why we have the Agency," Riobard continued. "An impartial body of governance that has absolute authority over all matters to do with Imperium. Every single scrap of Imperium, throughout the galaxy, belongs to them, to be refined and distributed by them, entirely at their discretion, with absolute authority to regulate it as they see fit." He straightened back up. "And the Agency was formed nearly three hundred years ago. Think about how desperate, how panicked the Kingdoms had to have been, to approve the creation of something like that. How they must have realized how dire the situation was going to become. For the planets to collectively decide that handing control of the substance over to a third-party, as well as lose the highly-lucrative Imperium free market, was preferable to letting its use go unchecked." He grimaced. "And then, consider that this was three hundred _years_ ago, Your Highness. And I assure you, the problem is only getting worse."

Endymion nodded, trying to not let Riobard's rather serious proclamation of impending doom bother him. But then again, how could it _not_?

"Despite the best attempts of the Agency to regulate and control distribution...we're all still just kicking the can down the road, hoping that the next generation might figure out a long term fix." He shrugged. "Doesn't make much sense to me." He sighed, then turned back to his student. "But, I suppose I'm just a scholar with platinum-tier certifications in predictive models. What do I know?"

Endymion blinked up at the elder scholar, unsure if he was asking him a question that he was supposed to answer.

"Well, enough of that," Riobard said. "Now, the effectiveness, efficiency, and cleanliness of Imperium is correlated to its purity. The more pure the Imperium, the more power it will be able to output, and the cleaner it burns. What's more, this correlation is parabolic." He leaned forward towards Endymion. "Do you know what that means, young Prince?"

"It…" Endymion swallowed. "It means that...the effectiveness of the Imperium and its ability to supply power rises at a rate much faster than it's purity."

"Very good," Riobard said, nodding. "Imperium of...say, forty percent purity, a single libra of the stuff might power an average neighborhood's heating system for a winter, or power a small transport to take cargo from the Earth to the Moon. But if you just made it fifty percent pure, the difference is staggering. One libra can...power an entire small town for a day or two, or even have enough of a charge to fire off a hyperspace jump from Venus to Mars. Sixty-five percent, and now we're talking, you've got enough for...probably a dozen tunnel jumps through the asteroid belt, snapping from Mars to Jupiter and back again in a matter of days." He reached down towards the small Imperium Crystal on the desk. "This particular stone is especially interesting, Your Highness, in that it is from the stock of the purest Imperium mine known to date. Eighty-two percent pure, almost. Plucked from a tunnel deep within Venus. With just that single little gemstone, you'd be able to cruise an F-class transport frigate clear across the entire galaxy five or six times. You could power everything inside a small town for just short of a year with just that."

Endymion nodded, looking down at the gem, and then watching as Riobard picked it up and slipped it back into the little velvet sack.

"Of course, Imperium loses some of its purity when it's synthesized, but the loss is negligible when done using the proper techniques by an expert chemist," the scholar continued. "The Agency could take this particular little stone and...produce usable Imperium of over eighty percent purity. Still more than enough to...say, power everything in this entire palace for over a year, I'd say."

"That's incredible," Endymion squeaked, his pre-pubescent voice straining a bit. "How...how can we be running out of it, if so little can accomplish so much?"

Riobard sighed. "Because...I don't know, Your Highness. Perhaps the civilizations of the galaxy spent so much time thinking about whether or not they could advance...they never stopped to think about whether or not they should." He chewed on his cheek for a moment. "But, who am I to pass such judgement?" He shrugged. "And...maybe there's a big old load of this stuff, somewhere out there in this galaxy, just waiting to be discovered, that'll keep everyone happy forever." He rolled his eyes. "That seems to be what everyone's hoping for."

"

Kunzite delicately reached the small metal screwdriver into the opened panel on the side of the cube, poking little wires aside to gain access to a little chip behind them.

"It has to be...some kind of mistake, right?" Endymion muttered, staring down at the Imperium Crystal, having been removed from the cube after the reader had finished. "That's impossible."

"Highly improbable, not impossible," Kunzite replied, jabbing the tip of the tool into the chip, a couple of sparks crackling up before the display screen went blank. "There's a difference."

"What are you doing?" Endymion asked, finally thinking of something else besides the absolutely staggering discovery the two had just made.

"Shorting it out," Kunzite answered, closing the side panel back up. "It'll look like there was some sort of power surge that shorted the memory chip out next time they try to use it. Easy enough to replace, they won't think much of it. And, most importantly, there will be...absolutely no record that such a reading ever happened."

As Kunzite closed the device back up. "You don't think the machine could be buggy, do you?"

"Once we're back on Earth, I can run a few more tests," Kunzite said, going back to the shelf and replacing the device where he had found it. "But I have to say, these particular models are nothing if not dependable and accurate. That's why I didn't want to use one of the handheld readers."

"I mean, if the parabolic correlation holds...what are we talking about here?" Endymion wondered out loud. "It's almost unthinkable, isn't it?"

"Well, no one has ever found anything even close to this level of purity before, so...I'll have to actually conduct some tests to be sure, but...yes, most likely."

"How can they be sitting on something like this and not know?" Endymion muttered. "And how can they know and just let it...sit there?"

"You said the tunnel you found it in is off-limits?" Kunzite asked.

"Yeah, they...at least, that's what Sergio said," Endymion recalled. "Said a few of the miners had gone down that way and never come back, and then...uh...they found some fire traps?" He wrinkled his forehead. "I don't know, it all sounded odd and confusing, but...as far as I could tell, they have no clue what's in there." He tapped his foot against the floor for a moment.

Kunzite pocketed the crystal. "This could...complicate things."

Endymion nodded. "So. What do we do now?"

Kunzite glanced around the empty classroom for a moment, then stepped in closer to Endymion. "Well, legally, there's only one thing we can do. We report our finding to the Galactic Imperium Agency, or if you prefer, Queen Serenity, who then reports the finding to the Galactic Imperium Agency. And then, what happens happens."

"Right," Endymion said, nodding. "But, perhaps...that's not what we _should_ do, is it?"

Kunzite grimaced, but nodded. "Perhaps not. But it's important that you're aware that doing anything else at this point is a violation of galactic law, and one that even your status won't protect you from."

Endymion nodded. "Well...we'll just have to be careful, then."

"Do you remember where you found it?" Kunzite asked. "While we're here, perhaps it might be smart to get a better grasp of exactly what we're dealing with."

"Yes, I know exactly where I found it, and I was rather thinking the same thing," Endymion agreed.

"Depending on how much more there is...this is either a discovery of reasonable significance, or, it's the most significant discovery in the history of our galaxy." Kunzite reached his hand up and felt the little crystal in his pocket. "Before we make any major decisions, I should go see which one it is."

"We," Endymion corrected as Kunzite took one step towards the door to the classroom. "We should go see."

Kunzite gave a small grunt. "Absolutely not. Particularly after what happened earlier today, out of the question. You're not going back down there, _especially_ after what you were told about that tunnel zone."

"Well...you can say that all you want to...but I don't seem to recall _telling_ you where I found it," Endymion said casually, causing Kunzite to freeze mid-step and look back at his charge.

"You can't be serious," Kunzite said darkly. "Your Highness, please—"

"And, either way, Kunzite...I'm ordering you," Endymion followed up with a small smile.

Kunzite's mouth closed, knowing that he had no counter to such a statement.

"Choosing to not hand this over to the agency is my decision, not yours," Endymion added. "It wouldn't be fair for me to send you down there alone."

"Well...I suppose that's one way to put it," Kunzite acknowledged. "Alright. What, exactly, is it that you're...ordering me to do?"

Endymion glanced around the classroom. "Tonight, after Serenity's asleep. I'll come up with some excuse to get out, we'll meet up at the docks, we'll take your shuttle over to the mines, get in...and go have a look. It's possible we're all getting worked up over very little, could just be that little vein. Still a significant find, but...hardly worth subterfuge over."

"Very well," Kunzite relented. "But speak of this to nobody, no exceptions."

"

"Oh, I could just sing!" Kasios said, tapping his finger along the small screen he held in his hands. "We've been after this prick for six cycles, he's responsible for probably twenty percent of the unregulated product in Antilles, and finally! Finally, we got the son of a bitch!"

Endymion leaned over from his seat to the right of his father, looking down at assorted images of men in black uniforms subduing and apprehending a short, fat, balding man. He didn't take in too many of the details, listening to his father far more than he was observing the images.

"Running an Imperium laboratory out of a Florist shop basement?" Queen Serenity said incredulously, leaning over from Kasios's left. The elder Serenity still greatly resembled her daughter, with the same ethereal beauty and almost angelic quality. "Interesting choice."

"Well, I suppose it helps explains the smell from the synthesization process," Kasios mused, still scrolling through images. "Still though, any Imperium lab that isn't mobile is doomed. We should be embarrassed that it took us this long to find this asshole."

"Mobile?" Endymion said, looking up from his steak that he was cautiously cutting up with a steel fork and knife. "W-what do you mean?"

"Oh, well...you get a transport of some kind, you make a lab out of it. Stay on the move, go some place deserted when you start processing it," Kasios explained. "The ones who do that, they're the ones who are hard to catch." He grimaced. "Some of those ones stayed active for years."

Endymion went back to methodically cutting his steak up, finally taking one of the symmetrical squares he had carved and putting it into his mouth.

"Uh, I'm...sorry, son, sorry, I know this is supposed to be about you and her, I...I'm just excited, we finally tracked this prick down, and I've got a good feeling he'll give up his sources, so...look, you go ahead! I don't wanna hog your spotlight anymore, you go on, say something." Kasios set the screen down on the table and scooped some vegetables off the plate in front of him onto his fork.

"Oh, it's perfectly fine." Endymion glanced over to his right, finding his fiancee sitting there right next to him, taking a sip of water from a glass. "I...I don't really have too much to say at this point, you...take your victory lap all you want, father." He took a drag of water from his own glass. "Me and Serenity are...we're getting married, I think we all know that pretty well by now."

Kasios nodded. "This asshole had a big old crate full of raw Imperium, fifty-eight percent. The shit he was selling? Thirty-two." His nose wrinkled. "What a piece of shit, huh? Think of how much potential utility he was wasting." He scrolled through a couple more images. "Whatever recipe this guy was using...it looked like it involved hot sauce and baby powder. Can you imagine that?" He grabbed the screen again, Endymion peeking over to look at a crate half-full of raw Imperium crystals, each one clearly milky and opaque.

"And you said he'd been active for six cycles?" Queen Serenity said. "Oh, I hope he rots in an agency prison cell for life. How many starships could you have powered with all of the potential energy he wasted?" She scooped some chunks of potatoes together with her fork.

"These amateur Imperium chemists have no idea what they're doing," Kasios agreed. "Not just the bullshit recipes they use, but...the harm they're doing to our galaxy." He looked over at Queen Serenity. "Unfortunately, we'll probably go a little easy on the guy in exchange for his source of the raw Imperium...but that's the person we'd really want anyway."

Endymion did his best best to suppress his rapt interest with everything his father was saying.

"Hey, check this out," Kasios said, holding the screen over towards Endymion. Another crate, this one full of rolled-up paper notes, a sea of bundles of rectangular paper bills. "Found this in his little lab too. All that money he made, never going to get to spend it."

Queen Serenity leaned in from the other side to peek at the screen. "Well, I suppose that's why these people think it's worth it to do all this."

"Nothing's worth a life in an agency prison cell," Kasios insisted.

Endymion swallowed a bite of cabbage, then turned to his father. "How was he...making that much money with such poor quality product?"

"Oh, well...doesn't matter how bad it is, it'll still move," Kasios answered. "Probably getting like...four thousand creds a libra." He sipped from his glass of water. "If he wasn't an idiot, he'd manage a product of at least forty-five percent purity, that he could push for twenty thousand."

Endymion nodded. "Y-yeah, that...makes sense," he said quietly.

"There was one guy five years ago, was pumping out stuff at fifty-nine percent. He knew what he was doing." Kasios's forehead wrinkled. "Now that stuff was going for ninety grand a libra. Of course, he wasn't so good at the part where you had to hide all the money you had that you weren't supposed to have. Should have seen the size of his house."

Endymion nodded. "Oh, to be desperate for money."

Princess Serenity leaned over towards Endymion, resting her head against his shoulder. "What's it like to never have to worry about money, sweetie?"

Endymion chuckled. "Oh, you don't know?" He pointed his fork all around the dining room, spinning it about. "You grew up in _this_ palace, and you're trying to play that game with me?"

"You'll have to excuse my daughter," Queen Serenity said. "She seems to be under the impression that having to use the same silk sheets in her bed for more than four cycles equates to poverty."

"Well, after we're married, I'll see to it that she's never exposed to such horrors again," Endymion said dryly, looking down at his love. "Oh, actually, Serenity, I'll be meeting with Kunzite tonight after you go to bed. Might not be back until very late."

"What's up?" Serenity asked.

"Oh, he wants to go look at a few things on the Moon before we leave," Endymion explained. "Just wants a look at some of the landmarks, judge a few things for himself, I...I don't understand all of it myself. But it sounded interesting, so I wanted to check it out too."

"Alright, you boys have fun," the younger Serenity said, coming back to her plate of dinner.

"Oh yeah, Endymion, when are you heading back to Earth?" Kasios asked, turning to his son. "I'm leaving in two days, I'm due back for a council meeting on _The Savery_."

"I'll probably head back about the same time as you leave for your meeting," Endymion said quietly. "Just, uh...wanna take a little time to appreciate what's up here."

"

Kunzite's personal shuttle, _The Falconeri_ , had just mere days before been upgraded with cutting-edge lateral boosters, permitting the A-class transport to accelerate in any direction to maximum velocity in less than two beats. Endymion was marvelling at the incredible control this granted his most trusted general, as he effortlessly guided the small ship across the moon's landscape, closing the gap between them and the mine entrance far faster than the trolley had.

"What'll they think of next?" Endymion wondered aloud as Kunzite already began to slow the speed of the transport down a touch.

"Teleporters," Kunzite suggested. "Probably not while any of us are still alive, though."

"Fifty years ago, they were saying the same thing about a universal galactic currency," Endymion pointed out. "We're living in an age of miracles, buddy."

The small transport landed about two-dozen paces from the mine entrance, quietly settling down into the grey rock of the moon's surface. Endymion peered out the front window, clearly seeing that the lone sentry posted at the front of the mine had noticed the unexpected ship, and was watching them warily.

"Let me do all the talking," Kunzite instructed, reaching down and flipping a switch near the right side of his pilot console. A hatch behind them opened up, a small set of stairs descending down to the ground. Endymion stood up. Kunzite got to his feet, following his charge down to the moon surface.

Endymion noticed the sentry give a little flinch as he came to realize that the Earth Prince was approaching him, turning to glance at Kunzite. "All yours, then." A few paces short of the little box the sentry was inside, he stopped, letting Kunzite close the rest of the distance.

"Open the gates," Kunzite said simply.

"U-uh…" the guard stammered, eyes dancing back and forth between Kunzite and Endymion. "I...I don't…understand."

"You don't need to understand, you just need to open the gate," Kunzite said evenly.

"Uh, to...opening the gate after hours, I need...I need a reason for the log—"

"You don't need a reason for the log," Kunzite interrupted. "Because you're not opening the gate after hours. Because we are not here." He nodded slowly. "Alright?"

The sentry started to look a little scared now. "Uh...sir, I…"

Kunzite wordlessly reached into his outside front chest pocket. The guard flinched back, but seemingly relaxed when Kunzite pulled out a roll of paper bills.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Kunzite asked, holding the roll of creds up in front of the man's face.

"It...no, sir, certainly not, it's...it's just…"

"Alright," Kunzite said, leaning in a bit towards the man. "The Prince, he...rather enjoyed riding around in the carts today, he wanted to do it again. And it's embarrassing, so I insisted that he wait until after hours, when other people wouldn't be here. And, because it's embarrassing, nobody needs to know. Understand?"

"O-oh…" the guard said, glancing around in confusion. "He...he liked riding in the c-carts?"

Kunzite just stared at him flatly for a few seconds, knocking the smile that had been creeping onto the sentry's face.

"We were not here, you didn't open the gate. Simple as that." He gave the roll of currency notes a shake. "Come now, this is more than what you make in a cycle."

"Y-yeah, no problem!" the man said, reaching forward to grab the roll of money. "Secret's safe with me! And...y'know, in a few cycles, this place'll...basically be his anyway, so—"

"We may be back in the future," Kunzite cut him off. "And, if you remain amenable, it could be lucrative for you." The sentry hit a couple buttons on a panel behind him, and the gates to the mines slowly slid open. "However, if you were to tell...anyone...and I do mean anyone...about our presence here tonight, I promise you, you'll lose far more than just your job."

"Yes sir!" the sentry said quickly.

"

"You stay right behind me at all times, no matter what," Kunzite instructed firmly, holding his hand up in the air and looking over his shoulder. "If your father found out that I'm putting you in this sort of situation, he'd have me drawn and quartered."

"Yeah, maybe right after he had _me_ drawn and quartered for not reporting this to the agency already," Endymion countered. "Okay, there!"

Both young men held powerful flashlights in their hands, and Endymion had his pointed down the thin mining tunnel, focused in on a small little red tube laying on the stone floor.

"I dropped that on my way out," Endymion explained, pointing over to the unlit flare. "That side tunnel to the right, that's the one."

The pair came up to the fork in the road, Kunzite bending down to grab the flare. "Alright. It's of special importance that you stay behind me now. I have no idea what this supposed fire trap might be, but I doubt they conjured it up out of their imaginations."

"I don't believe in dragons," Endymion said. "But, yes. Now, keep your eyes on the wall to the right, the vein was there."

A few steps into the offshooting tunnel, sure enough, Kunzite found the crystal vein. Trailing down the tunnel wall, the thin deposit was easy to miss unless you were looking for it. Kunzite shined the light close to the crystal, watching it turn reflective. He looked down the tunnel.

"Well...this is already quite significant," Kunzite murmured. "Even if this deposit is all there is, you could accomplish quite a decent amount with just this. And, of course, the mere existence of Imperium Crystal this pure…"

"I only got a few more steps down the tunnel before I had to turn back," Endymion said, pointing down the way that he had yet to trek. "I have no idea how far this goes or what's down there."

Kunzite began to purposefully walk down the path, Endymion right on his tail. Every few paces, they'd glance up at the right wall, eyes finding the Imperium vein, each step revealing yet another precious collection of the priceless substance.

A couple dozen paces down, a flood of bright sparks suddenly spat from the left wall. The very instant these sparks went off, Kunzite spun around and pushed Endymion back a few steps and into one of the tunnel walls, covering him with his body.

Endymion peered over Kunzite's shoulders, looking at the flood of red and yellow sparks spitting from the wall. As his eyes focused, he realized that all of them were being fired out of one particular spot on the wall. "Wait a minute…"

Kunzite twisted his head around, looking at the display, waiting for it to actually do something resembling posing a threat. But beats ticked by, with nothing changing. It may as well have been a firework display for as benign it seemed to be.

And then, the sparks dissipated, leaving nothing but a little bit of smoke as evidence. Kunzite and Endymion stood there, observing the tunnel, waiting.

"If I didn't know any better…" Endymion muttered.

Kunzite walked over to the spot on the wall where the sparks had come from, pulling out a short dagger from his belt. He immediately found a small hole in the wall from which the sparks had come from, and stuck the small blade into the hole.

When he pulled it back out, it had the charred remains of a flare on it. Kunzite held it up, examining it in the light of his flashlight.

"A flare?" Endymion questioned, walking up behind his general, looking at it.

"Identical to the ones that the miners here are always carrying," Kunzite added. "Possibly modified slightly to increase the cone size." He looked down along the floor of the tunnel, quickly finding a black thread beneath their feet. "Tripwire…"

"Someone did this," Endymion reasoned. "Probably a miner." He looked down the tunnel. "Someone who doesn't want anyone else to see what's at the end of this tunnel."

"You said there were...four miners who disappeared down this way, I believe?" Kunzite recalled.

Endymion nodded.

The two took a few more steps forward, but halted when Kunzite threw his hand out behind him. He shined his light down towards the floor, keen eyes looking for something. And then, after a couple seconds, he removed the burnt flare from the tip of his dagger and tossed it a few paces down the tunnel.

The flare struck against a taut thread, and sure enough, another show of sparks rained from a hidden flare in the wall. The two stood there, watching it.

"I don't know what's more sad," Kunzite muttered. "The fact that someone actually thought this would be an effective deterrent...or the fact that it actually worked."

"

The pair had run into a further nine of the half-assed attempts to keep people from travelling down the tunnel, every couple dozen paces stopping so Kunzite could disarm it with a toss from the previous spent flare. It was becoming tedious. It was almost comical that someone had put so much work into such a toothless security system.

"Well...I suppose you don't have to be very smart to get a job down in the mines," Endymion muttered. "Still, though...how do you fall for that?"

The pair was approaching a sharp bend to the right in the tunnel. The vein of Imperium had continued to run along the wall during their entire trek, already promising a non-trivial amount of value just from that single deposit. But, given all the time someone had taken to deter people from coming here, both of the young men couldn't help but suspect that there was something much more.

"Just because all of the other traps were harmless doesn't mean that the next one won't be," Kunzite reminded him. "Please, let's continue to be very careful."

The two cautiously made their way around the corner, coming out into a very welcome sight. The tunnel ended, opening up into a very large chamber. Glancing about, shining his light in every direction, Kunzite took a single step out into the giant room of moon rock.

Immediately, he turned to his right, shooting his flashlight beam directly at the nearest wall.

Only his years of training kept him from dropping the flashlight at what he saw.

The entire wall became reflective, turning into a large mirror, perfectly taking in all images in front of it and sending them back. Every spot of the wall that was being hit by powerful enough light waves had done it. Slowly, Kunzite began to run the flashlight up the wall, towards the high-above ceiling, every movement of the flashlight causing yet another area of the wall to turn into a crystal clear mirror.

Endymion, in absolute shock over this, forgot his instructions to stay close behind Kunzite, and stepped forward towards the wall. Kunzite was so shocked, he forgot to reprimand him. Endymion slowly reached out towards the wall, eyes just now barely able to see that there was a thick pane of what looked to be clear glass covering the walls.

He pressed his palm up to the wall, fingers finding what he could only assume was Imperium Crystal. His hand was a good three palm-lengths away from the stone wall when it encountered the crystal. Although he would need mining equipment to know for sure, it seemed as if the entire gap was made of pure Imperium.

Slowly, he twisted his head around, in absolute shock. He found Kunzite, having condensed and focused the flashlight into a single narrow beam, slowly dancing the beam all along the walls and ceiling, finding that it was successfully turning the walls into mirrors wherever it went.

"Ho...ly…" Endymion said under his breath, watching Kunzite's initial evaluation of the walls around them reveal the obscene value of the chamber.

"...shit." Kunzite finished, for the first time years distracted enough to not adequately protect his charge.


	4. The Hand That Rocks

Chapter 04: The Hand That Rocks

The two young men just continued to shine their flashlights in every direction, finding more Imperium Crystal everywhere along the walls and the ceiling. The chamber stretched on beyond their sight, bending to the left off in the distance.

"Well. I think we have our answer about the...the significance," Endymion croaked out, his mouth dry.

"Most certainly," Kunzite replied.

" _ **TURN BACK NOW!**_ "

Kunzite immediate threw himself into Endymion, pushing him back against the nearest wall again and using his own body as a shield. He twisted his head around over his shoulder, looking around the large chamber.

" _ **LEAVE THIS PLACE IMMEDIATELY, AND NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN, LEST YOU BE STRUCK DOWN BY...BY ALL THE FURY...THE FURY OF...THE…**_ "

Kunzite looked around the chamber, face wrinkled in confused.

"What the…" Endymion muttered, eyes moving over to his right, looking at a large rock jutting out of the floor a dozen paces from the entrance. Though the maddening echoes bouncing about the chamber made things difficult to trace, he thought he could isolate the booming voice to coming from behind it.

Kunzite took his flashlight and shined it over towards one of the walls right by the large rock, turning a small circle of the wall into a perfectly reflective mirror. This revealed what was behind the giant stone. A man, looking rather thin and frail, was crouched there, hands cupped by his mouth. A couple of sacks identical to the ones Endymion and Kunzite had picked up at the mine entrance were on the floor next to him, as well as a couple of bundled up blankets.

" _ **THE FURY OF THE…**_ " the man looked up, looking at the reflection on the wall. "...oh, shit," he muttered, standing back up.

Without a word, Kunzite marched over towards the rock, moving around it, briskly closing in on the frail man. Sure enough, the man began to try moving in the opposite direction around the stone, trying to keep it between him and the imposing, menacing genera of Earthl.

" _ **P-PAY NO ATTENTION TO...TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE—**_ "

"Oh, stop it," Kunzite hissed, stopping and turning around to go around the rock in the other direction. The man, not paying particularly good attention, kept going, quickly practically running right into Kunzite.

He flinched back, trying to evade the large white-haired bodyguard, but Kunzite grabbed the front of his uniform and lifted him up high into the air. He tossed him down onto his back on the floor, then brought his right hand up to point directly at him. A black, rectangular device was in his hand, the end directed straight at the man's chest.

"Who are you?" Kunzite demanded.

"U-uh, nobody!" he replied quickly, putting his hands up in front of his face protectively. "J-just a...an unimportant, irrelevant person, hardly even worth consideration or—"

Endymion pointed the small device in his hand down between the man's legs, and a red pulse of energy shot from it, down into the stone ground, just a finger length from his groin. The blast put a little crater in the floor, a wisp of black smoke kicking up from it.

"Who. Are. You?" Kunzite repeated, levelling the weapon back at the man's chest.

"J-J-Jericho!" he shouted, being sent into a panic at the sight of the firearm being pointed directly at him. "I'm a...I'm just a miner here, I work here!"

Endymion took a few steps towards his general and Jericho, Kunzite reaching out his left hand towards him. "Don't come any closer," Kunzite instructed.

"I seriously doubt he's capable of doing anything to hurt me," Endymion muttered, stopping several paces short nonetheless.

"Oh, I agree," Kunzite replied, glancing over at his charge. "It's just...he smells terrible."

"Oh," Endymion said, taking a cautious half-step away from the two.

"Now, then...Jericho," Kunzite began, not dropping his firearm from its spot pointing directly at his chest. "You've got ten secundas before I blow a hole in your chest cavity. If I were you, I'd fill those ten secundas with the truth. As much as you can."

"Okay! Okay!" he panted, nodding. "Anything you want, just...please, after what I've been through, I don't want to die now! Please!"

Endymion crossed his arms over his chest.

"I...I'm a moon miner, been working down here for forty cycles—"

"You _were_ a moon miner," Kunzite corrected. "I think it's safe to say you're out of a job at this point."

"R-right," he acknowledged. "W-well, some time ago, me and...and another miner were sent down this way, told to survey the area, report back with initial findings, and...well, we found…" he gestured around him at the chamber walls. "...all this."

"And your orders to...report back with your initial findings suddenly slipped your mind, did they?" Kunzite questioned, voice harsh and commanding.

"L...look, man, I...I know what this is!" he gestured around. "I'm not a smart man—"

"That's obvious," Kunzite interrupted.

"...b-but, I know what this is! I...I make like three thousand creds a cycle! My wife runs a little fruit garden out of our backyard so we can make ends meet! My daughter wears the clothes that my son wore sixty cycles ago! I...I can't honestly be expected to just find something like _this_ and...go about my job like it's completely normal!"

"I'm fairly positive that doing that is part of the contract you signed when you took on this job, so...yes, I think it's fair to expect you to do that," Kunzite countered. "So then, what ran through that mind of your next?"

Jericho glanced over at Endymion for a moment, then back to the man threatening him. "Well, me and...and the other guy...we got to talking." He nodded slowly. "This...something like this, just a single sackful of this stuff and we'd be set for life! My wife, my kids...they wouldn't have to worry about anything! I could retire, move to...move to Earth, maybe even send my kids to academy on Mercury. So...he said he'd go back, try to find an alternate exit to the surface, so he wouldn't have to go through the main gates. Told me that he'd come back with the right equipment, you...you can't mine Imperium with normal mining tools."

"An alternate exit to the surface," Kunzite repeated dryly. "This struck you as a likely find?"

"Well...no, but it was worth it!" Again, he gestured around at the Imperium surrounding them. "Any chance at all, it was worth it! Guys like me, we're _lucky_ if we get one chance in our life at a score like this, if there was even the tiniest chance of pulling it off, we had to take a chance!"

Kunzite glanced around. "There were two others that were sent down here shortly after you and your friend. Did they make it down here?"

Jericho hesitated, swallowing down hard. "Y-yeah, they...they found this place too, and...I, I uh...well, I had to kill them."

Kunzite's glare hardened even more at this proclamation. "You killed two of your colleagues? I have that right?"

"I'm not proud of it, but...they just...they showed up here, and I was outnumbered, and...I would only have the element of surprise once, so...I did what I had to do!" He nodded. "I had no idea how they would feel about this, they might have ruined everything, so—"

"You've got maybe four secundas left alive, and you're not doing yourself any favors on extending that right now," Kunzite said warningly.

"...right, well...y-yeah, I killed them. Judge me for that if you must."

"Oh, I will," Kunzite menaced.

"I suppose the flares were your doing?" Endymion chimed in, pointing over his shoulder at the cavern entrance.

"Y-yeah," Jericho said, nodding. "After those two, I thought...they might keep sending people down here, so...I had to try something to keep them away. Best I could do with the equipment that I had, figured it might buy me some time." He glanced over towards the cavern entrance. "I guess it did, because...no one else has come here until now, and it's...well, I've lost track of time."

"You've been down here three-quarters of a cycle," Endymion said. "How are you still alive, anyway?"

"Uh...strict rationing," Jericho replied evasively. "The two guys who came down here still had their kits on them, that helped. Those pill bottles have a few hyper-compressed water capsules and vitamin supplements to keep you going."

"...and?" Kunzite prodded.

Jericho couldn't quite keep himself from glancing over behind the large rock he had been hiding around when the two had initially entered the room. Kunzite glanced over in the same direction, then reached down towards his belt.

"Now, I'm...I'm not proud of anything I've done down here," Jericho said frantically as Kunzite kneeled down over him and began to roughly frisk him, feeling down his body. "I need you to know that, that's very important, I'm ashamed of everything I've done here, but I only did it because—"

Kunzite pulled a pair of steel cuffs from a loop on his belt, quickly slapping them on Jericho's ankles. They slammed shut on his appendages, and then a small indicator light on the centerpiece turned green. Immediately, the restraining device slammed down hard into the ground, the gravity-manipulation technology within making them feel as if they weighed thousands of libras, holding the man in place on the ground.

"H-hey!" he yelped as he was rendered immobile. He tried to yank his legs free from the restraints, but to no avail. Kunzite stood up and quickly walked around the rock, towards the man's initial hiding spot.

As Kunzite disappeared, Jericho turned to Endymion. "L-look, buddy, I don't know...how you and him know each other, I don't know who you guys are, really, but...that guy, he's nuts, you gotta chill him out, he's gonna kill me, I—"

"Eugh," Kunzite grunted from behind the rock. A few moments later, he emerged, a scowl on his face, stalking back over towards Jericho.

"What?" Endymion asked, looking over Kunzite's shoulder.

"Do _not_ go back there," Kunzite instructed firmly, then rounding on Jericho. "Well, I suppose everything you just confessed to me would be more than enough to land you in a prison cell for the rest of your life anyway...but cannibalism, now _that's_ a low that few people are capable of."

"Oh, ugh!" Endymion exclaimed, nose wrinkling. "Oh, Gods!" He regarded Jericho with disdain, feeling a faint sense of nausea set in.

"H-hey, they...they were already dead at that point!" Jericho lamely insisted.

Kunzite wordlessly lifted his firearm back up towards Jericho's chest.

"W-wait! WAIT!" he begged. "Please, don't kill me!"

"You should be begging me to pull the trigger," Kunzite said. "The prison sentence you'll be serving when we take you back to the surface will make a quick death seem like paradise. And that's _if_ you're not handed over to the agency for attempting to privately mine raw Imperium."

Jericho looked down at his leg cuffs, again trying to squirm out of them.

"Your friend, no doubt dead somewhere deep in the tunnels, slowly decomposing, perhaps never to be found...he's the lucky one, believe me," Kunzite said.

"Hey," Endymion said suddenly, looking over at Kunzite. "Come here, let's...we need to talk."

Kunzite glanced back down at the frail-looking prisoner, but then quickly marched over towards his charge. Endymion quickly retreated back into the entrance tunnel, away from Jericho.

"Okay, okay...forget that guy for a second," Endymion said under his breath. "What are we, what are we looking at here? Like, this, all this stuff." He pointed back towards the chamber. "It...I know it's big, but, what are you thinking?"

"Well," Kunzite said in a similarly low voice. "Once again, legally, there's nothing for us to think about. Legally, the only thing we can do is report this."

Endymion nodded. "I know that, but...is that a good idea?"

Kunzite grimaced. "Given that doing anything else can easily result in heavy fines, possibly even a prison sentence on board _The Savery_...it's certainly not a bad idea."

"Okay," Endymion said. "So, let's say we go up to the surface, tell Queen Serenity about this, or...arrange for them to find out, or what have you." He glanced up the tunnel, back the way they had came. "What happens then?"

"Well, then the Agency would immediately assume ownership of every last carat of it," Kunzite said. "They'd send their mining crews down, strip it, take it off to _The Savery_ , and that's that." He swallowed. "They would...probably give the Moon Kingdom some sort of finder's fee. Though they're not required to, they often do for significant findings. And this one is...most certainly significant."

"Mere percentage points of what it's worth," Endymion muttered.

"Percentage points of percentage points," Kunzite corrected. "But...even then, it would be a very large sum." He thought for a moment. "Possibly, enough to...alter the nature of the Kingdom merger, if that's what you're thinking about."

"Or call it off entirely," Endymion said darkly.

Kunzite seemed slightly taken aback by that suggestion. "Your Highness, I...not that I'm an expert in such matters, but...that's not the impression that I get at all." He cocked his head. "Serenity...she loves you for you, doesn't she?"

"Yes," Endymion said tersely, nodding. "...probably."

"Probably?" Kunzite repeated.

"Well, I don't know how to read minds!" Endymion protested. "You never truly know what's going on in...someone's head, and everyone knows that there's political ramifications behind this marriage as well. Just, it can't be completely ruled out!"

"She carries your child," Kunzite pointed out.

"Okay, well, fine...let's move forward assuming that Serenity loves me and is marrying me because of that," Endymion reasoned. "Because that's...probably the case." He looked back towards the chamber. "But even given that, perhaps it's not good for us if they were to find out what they're sitting on right now."

Kunzite nodded. "Alright. Well, it seems like the miners are unlikely to come through here any time soon, so...we could just keep it to ourselves until the merger is complete and the marriage is official. Then we arrange for this to be found. I imagine the Serenities will be a little sore about it, knowing they had all this right under their nose this whole time, but they won't be able to do anything about it. And, because of the union, it'll be the Royal Family of Earth that's entitled to any finder's fee."

"Crossing our fingers that nobody ventures here in the meantime," Endymion added.

"Seems unlikely," Kunzite countered. "But, that seems a reasonable course of action to me. Technically in violation of a few agency laws, but I doubt we'd get caught."

Endymion's face wrinkled, glancing around the tunnel. "Not sure I'm a big fan of it."

"I'm not seeing any other possibilities," Kunzite said patiently. "What don't you like?"

"Look, I..." he spun around, pointing towards the chamber of Imperium. "Just...give me your best guess, an estimate, I know we've only been in there for a little bit, and...I'm not holding you to anything you say, but...what's in there? What are we talking about? That much Imperium at that level of purity, what...how big a deal is this?"

Kunzite pursed his lips. "I...I can't give any sort of accurate assessment, based on how little I've seen." He blinked a few times. "But, applying some educated guesses and making some assumptions…" he thought for a moment. "Even given the rate of technological advancement in the galaxy. Even given the rate of population growth. I believe that the contents of this cave could run the entire galaxy for five centuries."

Endymion nodded. "And that's a big deal."

"Very, very big deal," Kunzite agreed. "If I had to guess, I would even say that the contents of that chamber are worth more than the entire Kingdom of Earth that you're heir to. Maybe many times more."

"And it's _here_ ," Endymion continued. "It's here, on the moon, which belongs to the Royal Family of the Moon. It...it belongs to Serenity, it's...it's her birthright."

Kunzite shook his head. "Your Highness, I...you know this, you know how this works. Yes, the planets and the moons are all owned by the various Royal Families of the galaxy, but Imperium is another thing entirely. Every carat of Imperium in this galaxy belongs to the Galactic Imperium Agency, every single Kingdom in this galaxy has agreed to this arrangement."

"Yes, three hundred years ago," Endymion argued. "Three hundred years ago, a collection of panicked, short-sighted, foolish rulers decided that it was a good idea to hand absolute authority over the most precious resource in the galaxy to...to a...an impartial, unbiased, and fair third-party. And it's impossible for me to put enough quotation marks around the words impartial, unbiased, and fair, so excuse me if I don't even try. And so, because of this...absurd decision on their part, the woman that I love is forced to give away her birthright for a pittance. And I don't like that."

"Your Majesty, ideological debate is one thing, but it's the law. I sympathize with your point, but there's not really much we can do. The agency is effectively a superpower, and most of the Kingdoms in this galaxy cooperate with them. One day, when you're King, perhaps you can bring about some amendments to the arrangement with the Agency, but right now there's nothing that can be done." Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest. "And, I shouldn't need to remind you of this, but your Father sits on the High Council of the agency, and is among the most pro-regulation people in the entire galaxy. To defy the agency is to defy him. So, I'm not seeing any other way to proceed."

Endymion raised his hand up by the side of his head, index finger pointed outward, shaking it towards the wall. "Okay. Bear with me here." He turned away from Kunzite, slowly pacing up the tunnel. "What if _we_ sold it? You and me."

Kunzite reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "Oh, Gods...can I go off the record for a moment here?" He paced after his charge a couple steps.

"Feel free," Endymion urged.

"Have you lost your mind?" Kunzite growled. "Have you gone insane? I'm really asking."

"Okay, let's go back on the record, if you're going to be like that," Endymion said, slightly moody.

Kunzite sighed. "Your Highness, that's a very bad idea, and I'm shocked that I even need to say it. Distributing unregulated Imperium is one of the worst crimes in the galaxy, and even your status wouldn't protect you from consequences. Even if your father _could_ protect you, he wouldn't. You know how he feels about Imperium."

"There's a _very_ active Imperium black market, I know that for a fact," Endymion said. "Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn of course, most moons, even some on Mercury...despite the best efforts of most governing bodies, tons of the stuff slips through. If they can do it...why can't we? It's incredibly lucrative."

"Lucrative? Your Majesty," Kunzite said sternly. "Do you know who you are?"

"I have some idea," Endymion replied.

"Endymion, you live in a massive palace, surrounded by servants, surrounded by fine jewels and rare art, with practically anything you desire a snap of your fingers away," Kunzite continued. "What do you stand to gain with any of this?"

"You said it yourself, didn't you?" Endymion questioned. "This deposit is probably worth more than the entire Kingdom of Earth. This isn't about me...having a couple more servant girls to fold my clothes for me, or adding a new rare painting to my bedroom wall." He leaned in closer to Kunzite. "This find could change the balance of power in the galaxy for millennia. Whoever controls this controls the entire solar system for generations. So, you'll forgive me if I'm hesitant to just hand it over."

"How do you plan on running an illegal Imperium distribution network out of the Earth Palace?" Kunzite asked. "Serious question."

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but...nothing worth doing is. My education has concluded, my playboy days are over, and there are only so many books in the world to read." He shrugged. "I could use something to do with my time anyway. Why not...work to secure the future of the Kingdom I stand to inherit?"

"Do I need to point out that you're about to become a husband and a father?" Kunzite asked.

"I'm aware. And, as a husband and father, this is a burden that I'm obligated to bear, for their sake. As a husband, I have to protect my wife from having this priceless trove be taken from her by those who would use it for their own profit and benefit, and as a future father, I have to protect my child's birthright from having its riches be pillaged." He pointed with his thumb towards the chamber. "This is quadrillions of creds, potentially, the opportunity to enrich the Earth and the Moon to this degree can not be discarded out of hand."

"Does it occur to you how much you sound like the cannibal in there?" Kunzite asked, jerking his head back towards the chamber.

"Oh, this is...completely different," Endymion said dismissively. "Don't even...make that comparison. And, you know, the agency...let's not pretend they're saints or something. Plenty of corruption and abuse of power there, price gouging, everything. Handing them this kind of leverage doesn't seem like a good idea to me. No, Kunzite, we're doing this. I've decided. I will _not_ let people come here and ransack Serenity's birthright until it's worthless just because of decisions made three hundred years ago."

Kunzite sighed deeply. "Your Highness...are you giving me an order?"

Endymion shrugged. "I don't want to, but...maybe I have to?"

Kunzite gave a little grumble, puffed a powerful breath out of his nose, and then glanced around. "It's going to take an awful lot of things to even give us a chance to make this work."

"Well, that's why I have you around, isn't it?" Endymion said with a sly little grin.

Kunzite fought to not roll his eyes. "I suppose that, if we're going to do this, the first step is obvious." He reached down towards his waist and pulled the long, thin dagger out of its scabbard. "You can stay here if you'd prefer."

"Whoa whoa!" Endymion reached forward and clapped Kunzite on the shoulder as his guardian turned around. "What are you doing?"

"Saving Jericho from an extended, unpleasant, painful stint in prison," Kunzite replied. "He knows too much, he can't be allowed to leave this place alive if this is what we're doing."

"Wait wait!" Endymion insisted, tugging Kunzite back. "I...hold on now, um...you're just going to execute him?"

"Yes," Kunzite said matter-of-factly.

"W-well...wait," Endymion said hesitantly. "I...look, it's just...he's unarmed and defenseless."

"I agree," Kunzite replied. "Executions are typically carried out on unarmed and defenseless people."

Endymion flinched a bit. "He...can we just not make that decision right now? We'll be back soon, obviously, he's not going anywhere, let's...you know, hold off."

Kunzite gave his charge a curious look, but ultimately sheathed the bladed weapon again. "There's not much of a decision to make, but...very well."

The two marched back into the chamber, Jericho still laying on the floor right where they had imprisoned him.

"H-hey, guys, um...you know, I told you who I was, but...just occurred to me, you haven't told me who you guys are. W-why are you guys down here?" he asked loudly.

Kunzite ignored the inquiry, looking around the large cave. "We'll be back tomorrow."

"O-oh, okay," he said, looking down at his leg restraints. "Um...could you, maybe…"

Kunzite simply turned around, placing his hand on Endymion's shoulders, guiding him back towards the cavern entrance.

"Wait! Wait, guys, I...I can't get to my food and water from here!" Jericho protested.

Just as the pair was about to disappear around the bend of the tunnel, Kunzite turned to scowl over at the traitorous miner. "If you were to take one more bite out of that...food source of yours, then you would be very, very lucky if you died of poisoning before I returned," he snapped. "Coward."

Endymion shrugged the sack looped around his shoulders off, taking a couple steps forward and tossing the bag through the air, arcing it towards the prisoner. It landed right next to him.

"That'll get you through," Endymion said before turning to leave alongside his guardian.

"T-thank you!" Jericho called out.

"

Endymion peered down into the small sack of assorted mining tools, fingers dancing along assorted contraptions. "You're sure nobody saw you?"

"Of course I'm sure," Kunzite replied, guiding his shuttle across the moon's landscape, back towards the mines. "Are _you_ sure that Serenity doesn't find it odd that you're disappearing two nights in a row?"

"She's just happy I have an interest in the Moon, don't worry about that," he insisted. "So what happens when they do inventory at the academy and come up short on the equipment checklist?"

"Well...whatever happens, it certainly won't be suspecting the Prince of Earth and his most trusted guardian of stealing them," Kunzite replied. "So I wouldn't be concerned about that." He gave Endymion a meaningful look. "Your Highness, there's no scenario where Jericho can be allowed to live, if we're to actually attempt to do what you're suggesting, so...you should prepare for that."

"We'll...we'll see," Endymion said dismissively, looking out the window of the shuttle as it zipped along the moon surface.

"He's a murdering traitor," Kunzite reminded him. "And a cannibal. He will not be missed."

"I know, okay? I know, it's...it's just, he's...he's got a wife and kids," Endymion said lamely. "We'll, we'll talk about it later, okay?"

Kunzite swallowed down hard, turning his focus back to his pilot duties for a moment. Earlier that day, he had found a particular spot on the moon that was largely deserted and had one of the mine tunnels come up very close to the surface right underneath it. If they were to be making routine return trips to the Imperium cave, they would need an alternate entrance to the mines.

"Okay," Kunzite said, turning back to his charge for a moment. "Endymion. As your friend, I...I just...look, if this is what you want to do, then I'm duty-bound to assist you in any capacity, I understand that. But, as your friend, I just...I need to know what's going on."

Endymion slowly turned to look at his guardian. "I'm not sure what else I can say. What's down there is worth a thousand times more than everything else on this moon put together, and I'm not going to let someone come in and just take it." He adjusted himself a bit in his seat. "It's...it's hers. She has a right to it. And, by extension, so do I."

Kunzite thought for a moment. "Endymion. You don't need money. You have never needed money. You will never need money. The Kingdom of Earth is one of the most prosperous in the galaxy, our treasury is loaded with creds, our vaults filled with valuable gems and minerals, our warehouses packed with exports. Even if taking the Moon as our responsibility ends up being a burden on the Earth, it'll be a drop in the bucket. Your father has done an extraordinary job of guiding the Kingdom of Earth into a golden age, the Moon will be fine once this merger is complete."

"Well...nothing stays the same forever," Endymion reasoned. "Kingdoms are always rising and falling, aren't they?"

Kunzite grimaced. "It...it just doesn't make very much sense," he continued. "I've known you very closely for eleven years now. I might know you better than anyone else in the galaxy. And you've never been anything except a...a...someone who wanted to read, study history, learn to truly grasp the weight of the responsibility you'd have one day." He sighed, then nearly chuckled. "You had girls from Venus clawing all over you when you were fourteen, and you hardly wanted anything to do with them. Took Jadeite two years to get you to loosen up with them, remember?"

Endymion rolled his eyes, embarrassed by a non-trivial amount.

"And now, suddenly, after...nineteen years of doing everything by the book, marching the path your father and your guardians set out for you...you're just…" he paused for a long moment. "I just...I just wish you could say something that would...help me make sense of it."

He turned to Endymion, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"If...if there's something else going on that I don't know about, something going on with you, then you should tell me. That's what I'm here for. Really, you should tell me. It's not weakness to talk about your problems."

Endymion sighed deeply, pursing his lips, turning back to face the front window as the grey rock of the moon sped by below.

Kunzite finally relented, taking his hand off Endymion's shoulder. "It just...what's going on? I'd like to know, Your Highness."

Endymion glanced to his right, then turned to Kunzite, considering his words carefully. "I am _awake_."

Kunzite's face was blank at this proclamation, waiting for something else to come from his charge's mouth. Nothing further came out, however, leaving the pair in silence.

"Well. That didn't really help," Kunzite said resignedly.

"We're almost there," Endymion said, leaning forward and looking down at the moon surface below.

"

"Oh, yes," Kunzite muttered, as the green glowing drill tip gently pressed through the thick sheet of Imperium. Kunzite wore a pair of form-fitting goggles over his eyes as he deftly maneuvered the drilling tool through the transparent material. "It's crystal all the way through here. Gotta be a solid six or seven thumb-lengths deep."

"You should let me help!"

Endymion and Kunzite turned around, looking over at Jericho, still trapped by the leg cuffs and unable to move.

"Seriously, I'm a miner, this is what I do!"

Kunzite turned back to his work, carefully pressing the spinning drill down into the Imperium. He glanced over at Endymion. "I don't know what you're dragging your feet for, but I _will_ have to execute him before we leave tonight. You can't honestly expect to just...keep him prisoner in here forever, because that would be the _only_ other option." He glanced back over his shoulder. "Even he'd prefer death to that."

Endymion sighed. "What if we bribed him?"

The glowing drill immediately shut off, Kunzite turning to give Endymion a piercing glare. "You _can't_ be serious."

"Look, I'm just spit-balling here," Endymion said defensively, glancing over his shoulder at Jericho, then turning back to Kunzite. "He's a working-class Moonite, he can be bought."

"Your Highness, this is already risky enough. Allowing him to leave these tunnels alive, under any circumstance, makes everything far more complicated. Needlessly, might I add." Kunzite turned the drill back on.

"It just...doesn't sit well with me," Endymion said, somewhat weakly. "I get it, it's just...if there's another way, I want to consider it."

Kunzite slowly worked the drill upward, gliding it fraction-by-fraction through the Imperium. "You allow him to leave alive, bribed or not, he could come back looking for more. He could tell someone else about this, intentional or otherwise, and they could come down here. He could tell the Agency just to spite us." He leaned over towards Endymion. "Your Highness. If you actually want to involve yourself in something as illegal and dangerous as Imperium smuggling...you can not balk at the concept of executing a man who, by the way, deserves it."

"Come on, guys! It's bad to lay down for this long! My muscles are gonna atrophy!"

Endymion glanced back over his shoulder at the prone miner, then back to Kunzite. "I'm thinking about it, alright?" He stood up. "You good here?"

Kunzite nodded before returning his full focus back to his drilling.

Endymion slowly wandered away from his guardian, looking around the giant cavern of Imperium, meandering over towards Jericho as he did so. His brain, though impressive and fully capable of handling a great many complex thoughts, couldn't even begin to process the scope of what was currently surrounding him. The numbers that had to be used to truly capture the immense value and utility on the walls and ceiling of the chamber were so large, even he was having difficulty really grasping it.

"Hey!"

Endymion looked down, finding Jericho maybe half a dozen steps away from him.

"You...you seem like the reasonable one, uh...come on, man, I'm a miner! I know how to drill Imperium, let me go and I can help!" Jericho pleaded. "I'm not doing anyone any good stuck here."

Endymion sighed, looking over at Kunzite's back. "You really don't know who I am, do you?"

"Should I?" Jericho asked.

"Yes," Endymion replied simply. "But...that's fine." He looked around, putting his hands in the pockets of his pants. "You _do_ smell awful, by the way."

"Yeah I know," Jericho grumbled. "Come on, man, who are you?"

Endymion just gave a small smile, lips held tightly shut.

"Look, are...are you guys gonna kill me?" Jericho asked. "Because...I mean, if you are, then...I mean, I'm begging you not to, really, I'll do anything you guys want me to, I swear, but...if you're going to kill me, then keeping me alive for a few extra minutas, it's not really doing me any favors."

Endymion's small smile faded, pushing a heavy breath out of his nose. "I don't know. I don't know." He jerked his head over towards Kunzite's back. "He wants to."

"Yeah, I picked up on that," Jericho replied. "What about you?"

Endymion puffed his cheeks out a bit. "I'm looking for a reason not to. I'm afraid I might not have a choice, though. I'm wondering if there's...something you could say to me that convinces me that I do. I'm not sure that there is."

Jericho swallowed down hard.

"But...I'm not saying that there isn't, either," Endymion finished in a low voice.

"Look, buddy, I...I don't know what you and your friend over there are getting at here, and...trust me, I don't care at all. None of my concern, I'm...if I ever get out of here, I'm forgetting everything that happened down here. Didn't happen as far as I'm concerned. This cave could be full of candy for all I know." Jericho cleared his throat. "I'd run back home, get my wife and kids, and we'd run and never look back. Head to Jupiter, start a new life, new names, everything. Start over." He shrugged. "What's here, this crystal, hundred percent yours, I just want to leave with my life. Please."

Endymion tapped his foot on the stone floor a couple times. "You know how much this cavern is worth? If I told you, you wouldn't believe it." He blinked a few times. "You can really just...forget about something like that?"

"Hey, if that's what I have to do to save my life, then...yeah, no problem," Jericho said.

"You've stayed down here for nearly a cycle, sleeping on the stone floor, eating crackers and…" his nose wrinkled. "...And, well...yeah...just so you'd have the faint chance to grab a little piece of the riches in this room. You've killed in cold blood, abandoned your duties, abandoned your family, all just for a longshot hope of making off with a sackful of crystal. And now I'm supposed to believe you can just...forget it exists?"

"At this point? Absolutely," Jericho said emphatically. "I stayed down here this whole time because...I mean, what else could I do at that point? But, if you can...you know, get me out of here without getting arrested, then of course I'd forget it."

Endymion grimaced, unconsciously pulling his hands out of his pockets and tugging at the cuffs of his shirt. "Uh-huh."

"Look, I got a family, and...hey, I know you just told me that I abandoned my family, and I'm not saying I didn't, but...this is for them, man. Me staying here, doing all these awful things, I did it...I did it for my family. I'm a miner, I don't want my son to be a miner when he grows up, and...hey, there aren't exactly many sterling opportunities for him to become much more than that. Like, this was it, maybe! But...if it's either that, or me never seeing them again because I'm dead, then...there's no decision."

Endymion nodded. "Two kids?"

He nodded. "Son and daughter."

"How old?" Endymion asked, glancing at Kunzite's back out of the corner of his eyes.

"The boy is...one hundred forty-six cycles, so, twelve years?" he replied. "Girl would be...seven years, then."

"Good kids?" Endymion continued, not really sure what he was doing other than trying to distract himself from the seemingly inevitable execution he'd have to permit.

"Oh, the best," Jericho replied. "All because of her, I'm sure...no idea what she's doing with someone like me. She should be with one of the genius guys on Mercury. How about you, any kids?"

"Uh...not yet," Endymion replied. "Expecting, actually. Probably six or seven cycles away."

"O-oh, do you...we still have the crib that we used," Jericho said. "You let me go, it's...it's yours, you need a crib?"

Endymion couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh...I think we're fine, thank you."

"So, you're married, then?" he asked.

"Uh...about to be," Endymion said uneasily. "I kind of...pulled the trigger a little early."

"Hey, me too," Jericho said with a smile. "My wife was showing when we took our vows, kind of embarrassing."

Endymion nodded. "What would you have done with the crystal if you had gotten out?"

"Oh...moved to Earth," Jericho answered, laying his head back against the stone floor. "Easier to sell it off to chemists down there. Bought a place near the ocean, I...I always envied Earth for having those beautiful oceans, would have loved to live by one. Maybe gotten into brewing beer in my basement, always been an interest of mine. Bought some real jewelry for my wife, had to...buy imitation stuff for her. Pack some away to send my kids to Mercury for a couple years when they get older, get a real education. You know."

"Sounds good," Endymion said, nodding approvingly. "Sounds real good."

"Hey!"

Endymion's head snapped up, looking over at his guardian, who was scowling over at him, having given the drill another short rest. With a mournful little glance at Jericho, he quickly jogged over to Kunzite, who flipped the goggles up onto his forehead.

"You're _not_ making this any easier for yourself," Kunzite scolded. "Come on. Stop it."

Endymion nodded with little conviction. "Kunzite, this guy...he's got a seven-year-old daughter," he said lamely.

Kunzite couldn't help but give a frustrated sigh as he turned back to the Imperium Crystal in front of him.

"

"Your Highness, in my humble opinion you've had some questionable ideas lately. But this, I really need to strenuously make myself clear on this one, you are beckoning disaster here," Kunzite said, tone caught between demanding and pleading. "Just go out into the tunnel, plug your ears, count to forty, come back in, and it'll be like he never existed. You'll never see him again. That's all I'm asking."

"He's a husband and father," Endymion grumbled, picking the small sack up in his right hand after sealing it by pulling the drawstring tight. "And what he's done, he's done for them. It just wouldn't sit well with me."

"If you do this, you are allowing him to get away with the things he's done while he's been down here, none of which is excused by him being a...husband or father, that shouldn't sit well with you either" Kunzite pointed out. "Actually, you're rewarding him. What he's done in the last cycle is worthy of a death sentence, all I'm suggesting is that I carry it out and not a Moonite scientist."

"Kunzite, just...I'm about to give this guy more creds than he's ever seen in his life. He's not going to do anything to put that at risk." He put his open palm up towards Kunzite. "Now, I understand that you don't want to do it, so...let me."

With great hesitation, Kunzite slowly pulled a tiny steel rod from a loop around his belt and placed it in Endymion's palm. Endymion lugged the small sack and tiny key over towards where Jericho lay, Kunzite a few steps behind him.

Footsteps gently echoing through the air of the cavern, Endymion stopped a couple paces away from the imprisoned miner. He dropped the sack to the ground, drawing Jericho's attention.

"Alright, Jericho, here's what's going to happen," Endymion said, pointing down at the sack. "Inside this bag, there are two libras of raw Imperium Crystal, mined from this cave. You could sell it to black market chemists down on Earth or Jupiter or Mars, would get you eighty or ninety thousand creds. Few years' salary for a man like you. Enough to help you start a new, better life. And, this Imperium is yours, as is your freedom from these mines, so long as you never again think about what you found down here, for the rest of your life."

"O-oh, man...no problem! Not at all!" Jericho said. "I already said, I'm putting all this out of my mind! You, you let me have that, and...yeah, no problem! It'll never cross my mind again!"

"We're going to get you out of here, past the main gates. You're going to go home, get your family, jump on the first shuttle off the Moon, and go somewhere else. I don't care where it is, but it can't be here. And you never come back, for any reason. You find a place where you can sell off this crystal, you make your money, and that'll be the end of it. You won't speak or think of these mines again."

"Y-you've got my word," Jericho said, nodding enthusiastically.

"If you were to...fail to meet any of those criterias, then you answer to him," Endymion said, pointing over at Kunzite a few steps behind him. "He has a way of finding things out. And should you go back on your word, he _will_ find you. And, you have _my_ word on this, he will force you to watch him cut your wife and children into little pieces while they're still breathing."

He saw Jericho tense up a bit at this warning, hands down at his sides balling into nervous little fists.

"He doesn't feel remorse, or pity, or compassion, Jericho. Trust me, he thinks nothing of making people suffer, it means nothing to him. Nothing you say will get him to stop. By the time he kills you, you will be truly grateful for it after what he's forced you to live through. And I don't want that to happen to you. But, if you can't abide by my terms, it _will_."

"Hey...loud and clear," Jericho said, nodding. "I believe you, completely."

"Alright." Endymion went down to Jericho's leg chains, taking the steel key in his fingers and kneeling down. "It's your lucky day. Cherish it. Do something in your life to earn it."

He reached the key forward, towards a small hole right in the center of the connecting piece of the cuffs, poised to push it in and set Jericho free. As the key closed in, Endymion could hear his heart beating loudly in his ears. His fingers began to shake a bit, causing him to miss the hole.

He kneeled there, frozen outside of his fingers shaking. After a few beats, he looked up at Jericho.

"R-really. This place doesn't exist as far as you're concerned, if...you whisper about it, he finds you, I promise," Endymion reiterated.

"I got you, man, loud and clear."

Endymion pulled the key back a bit, then again moved to slide it into the hole. He got it past the lip, but the tightening knot in his gut again got him to stop before he could push it in enough to unlock the chains.

He sighed, key halfway in, swallowing down hard. He felt like a large, clammy hand was violently squeezing his stomach. He felt Kunzite's judging gaze on the back of his head, even though he couldn't see his trusted guardian.

There was a ringing in his brain, it felt like. Alarms. Sirens. If he moved the key so much as a tiny fraction of a finger-length more into the lock, he felt they might start to overwhelm him. His face was starting to sweat.

"...buddy?"

The single word from Jericho snapped him out of his daze. He didn't know how long he had been kneeling there, but he roughly ripped the key out of the hole and stood up straight, stalking up a few paces up by Jericho's head.

He rubbed his hand along his face, grimacing, giving a frustrated grunt and groan as he stood up straight and looked up at the ceiling of the cave.

"Uh, it...it didn't work, I'm still...my legs are still...I can't get out," Jericho said down from the ground, looking up at Endymion.

With a settling breath, Endymion calmed himself, focusing his mind, eliminating the blaring alarms in his head and getting himself to think straight again. With a subtle movement, his hand reached up into his inside chest pocket, going inside his waistcoat.

"I'm sorry."

Before Jericho could reply, Endymion kneeled down by his head, grabbing him by the hair and holding him with his left hand. His right hand emerged from his inside pocket, holding a broad dagger, maybe a couple palms long. In a single, smooth motion, he jammed the sharp blade into the back of Jericho's neck, firmly shoving it through the flesh, pushing it all the way to the hilt.

Endymion knew enough about human anatomy to know that his goal was to sever the spinal cord, cutting the brain off from the rest of the body's nervous system. Quick and relatively painless. He tried to focus his mind on little informational factoids like that, and not the horrible little death rattle that Jericho gave off as his body stiffened, then relaxed, falling limp to the stone floor.

Endymion withdrew the blade from Jericho's body, quickly standing up and releasing his head. Without even really thinking about it, he dropped the weapon to the floor, vaguely hearing it clang and clatter against the rock ground. He took a couple shaky steps back from the warm corpse on the ground, staring down at the panicked expression on its face.

He felt a vague swirling in his head now. He felt dizzy, detached. His arms went slack at his sides, suddenly feeling quite weak. Unpleasant tastes were building inside his mouth.

And then, he was pulled out of this miasma by Kunzite roughly grabbing his right shoulder and spinning him a quarter-turn so they were looking right at each other. His expression contained a level of rage that Endymion didn't know his guardian could possibly direct at him.

"You should have let me do that," Kunzite growled, staring Endymion directly in the eyes, reaching up to grab Endymion's hair and holding him.

"I...I…" Endymion babbled, still feeling slightly shaky and hard of breath.

"What are you _thinking_?" Kunzite snapped, closely examining Endymion's wide, dilated eyes. "I never asked you to be the executioner, I would _never_ ask that."

Endymion blinked a few times, swallowing the nausea that had accumulated in his mouth.

"Oh, I...Your Highness, I understand our relationship and how it works, but you _need_ to make use of my expertise when appropriate," Kunzite continued, glancing down at the corpse that was starting to leak blood out of the back of its neck.

Suddenly, the rumbling in Endymion's head ceased, and with a little pop, he started to feel normal again. His posture steadied.

"It wouldn't have been fair," Endymion said, voice a little shaky. "Fair to you."

"Excuse me?" Kunzite questioned.

"This is...this is my decision, my choice. If it was up to you, we'd be handing him over to the authorities, so me just...I can't just have you do all the dirty work." Endymion looked over at Kunzite, his voice starting to steady. "It wouldn't be fair."

Kunzite couldn't hold back from rolling his eyes. "I have killed before, Your Highness. I think nothing of it, it means nothing to me to take a life. Certainly not that life," he said, looking back at the corpse. "You should have let me do it, now…" he grimaced, looking back at Endymion. " _Now_...you should see a therapist about this, but that's not really an option for us, so...I'll just have to do the best I can." He looked around the stone chamber. "So...let's—"

"I'm fine," Endymion insisted, looking down at the limp body, feeling his stomach loosen. "I'm fine now, just...a little bit of shock."

"Your Majesty, taking another's life is no trivial thing, and if I may say so, for one such as you, it is _going_ to have a large mental and psychological impact. You are _not_ fine," Kunzite insisted, finally releasing his master and backing off a bit from him. "Okay, just...look—"

"You were right," Endymion said, voice even and measured. "He had to go. No other way."

Kunzite nodded. "Yes, but—"

"He was going to ruin everything we were trying to do." Endymion looked down at the expanding puddle of blood spreading from the corpse, slowly stretching across the floor of the cave. "There was no other way."

"But I could have done it," Kunzite said. "I could have done it, and you wouldn't have...lost any sleep about it, or given yourself—"

"Why would I lose sleep?" Endymion interrupted. "You know, you...you said it. He deserved it. Murderer, cannibal, thief, all of it. His wife and kids, I...I did them a favor. The guy was scum, doesn't matter if he had a family. We can't let...someone like this jeopardize everything we're trying to do here."

Kunzite stared at Endymion for a couple seconds, and then nodded. "We'll revisit this soon. Speak only to me about this."

"I'm good," Endymion said, as Kunzite turned away from his charge and went over to where he had been drilling. Endymion kneeled down and picked up the sack he had previously offered to Jericho. "Really...it's alright."

"We head back to Earth tomorrow morning," Kunzite announced as he went up to the sight of his previous work. A small portion of the crystal that covered the near wall had been removed, rough cutlines where the drill had done its work. A couple of bags were on the floor, fabric containers filled with raw Imperium. "I'll need some time to gather information when we get back, so put this out of your mind for a bit. Focus on the wedding."

Endymion nodded as Kunzite bent down to lift the various sacks up. "I'm...I'm good."

"

Pulling his undershirt up over his head, Endymion discarded the garment over to the right, tossing it to the floor. His eyes were trained on his wife-to-be, laying in the large bed, head showing above the top lip of the blankets, eyes closed and a peaceful smile on her face.

Kicking his shoes off as he went up next to the bed, he was almost surprised to find himself not hesitating. His brain was insisting, demanding, that he quietly go to the other side of the bed, cautiously crawl underneath the covers, and then get to sleep.

He had never ignored his brain more emphatically than he was right now.

His pants roughly discarded, dropped to his ankles and kicked back behind him, Endymion bent down and roughly pressed his lips onto Serenity's. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Mmph, mmph!" Serenity moaned as she re-entered the world of the conscious, quickly waking up on realizing what had awoken her. Endymion, for his part, grabbed the blankets atop her body and tossed them over to the right, exposing Serenity's half-naked body and giving him free reign to mount her.

"Mm-oh! Endymion!" Serenity gasped, no grogginess in her voice as his big, strong hands began to jam underneath her, arms ensnaring her, rolling her over. "Ah!"

With an animalistic, almost feral ferocity, Endymion reached up and tore at her nightgown, growling with lust. Serenity almost squealed in surprise as she felt the silk of her nightgown split behind her.

"Wh-ah!" Serenity yelped. Endymion pressed his lips into her neck as he removed her clothes. "Ohhh!" He moved down to her right shoulder, using his teeth on her sensitive skin, making her shiver as he dug in with a gentle love bite.

"Oh! Endymion! W...where did... _this_ come from?!"


	5. Curia Regis

Chapter 05: Curia Regis

"When you're ready."

Kunzite pushed a lock of his long white hair out of his face, back behind his head, and then reached forward and touched the middle of the desk right in front of him.

Immediately, the entire surface of the desk started to show detailed images, each one flashing by in the blink of an eye. A traditional Earth wedding ceremony, a grassy field full of cattle, a fleet of fisherman boats, a sword duel between two armored knights...each one barely rendering before it disappeared to make room for the next one. To blink would be to miss one or two of them entirely. So Kunzite did not blink.

An entire secunda worth of quickly flashing images, ultimately a hundred of them, about four per beat. Finally, the parade of pictures was over, Kunzite quickly flickering his eyelids up and down to reset his vision and lubricate his eyeballs.

The desk then began to project out ten of the hundred images, two rows of five images. Immediately, Kunzite tapped the leftmost top one, a image of a spaceship shooting towards Saturn, and a numerical pad popped up on the screen. Tapping in the number '17', the image disappeared, replaced by one of a trio of scientists handling a green-glowing crystal.

Working with a rapid, methodical pace, Kunzite continued to select each image before assigning a number to it, placing each one in the order he had seen it flash by initially.

Other than his fingers tapping on the surface, the dimmed classroom was silent. A middle-aged bald man with harsh features watched him work.

Eventually, Kunzite had worked through all one hundred of the images, having ordered each one with a number from one to a hundred. With that prompt, the screen began to show a tiny representation of each image, ten rows of ten images each, in the order Kunzite had placed them in.

He scanned these rows, eyes dancing back and forth across each row. He reached forward towards the fourth row, taking the two rightmost images and dragging them so they switched places. He repeated this switch down on the seventh row, and then performed one final swap between one image in the top row and one in the eighth row, both of them very similar pictures of big, muscular men playing outdoor handball.

Kunzite leaned back in his seat, tapping the edge of the desk right in front of him with his fingers. The screen went black, and then a single large display popped up along the whole surface.

 _100/100_

 _Clap. Clap._

Kunzite looked up at his mentor, who was very slowly smacking his hands together in front of him, an amused grin on his face.

 _Clap._

"Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal."

Kunzite glanced down at his own knuckles, tiny marks and welts just barely detectable on the skin of his fingers, evidence of the discipline Alvy had meted on him for giving substandard results on this particular test. Perhaps, finally, his ruler had struck those fingers for the last time.

"You can't be fooled. You can't be tricked. Nothing gets past you." He nodded slowly, walking up next to the teenaged general-in-training. "I need to see no more from you in this discipline."

Kunzite felt his body relax slightly in the seat.

"Kunzite, you have exceeded all expectations. When you were brought here, I knew that you had tremendous potential, but even I did not imagine you would achieve this level of universal mental and physical expertise."

"Thank you, Master Alvy," Kunzite responded.

"You will be the finest of Earth Generals. The finest of guardians. You will be the most trusted of Prince Endymion's protectors and advisors, there is no doubt in my mind." Alvy put his hands behind his back. "He will trust you above all others. And anything he requests of you, orders of you, needs of you, wants of you, you will be able to provide."

Kunzite glanced over towards the lone door to the room, over to his right.

"Something on your mind?" Alvy asked.

"Oh, I'm just...I'm trying to imagine a scenario where my service to the Prince will involve much more than…" he gave a tiny smile. "More than...keeping appointments and finding new books."

"Well, he's ten years old," Alvy reminded him. "You never know how a person can change."

"Just...difficult for me to picture it," Kunzite muttered.

"He will have other guardians when he gets older, of course, but...you, Kunzite, you will be his most valued one. I promise you that. That's a tremendous responsibility, a tremendous burden. And you will carry it."

"I will carry it gladly," Kunzite agreed.

"Next year, you'll be sent to Venus for two years. To learn combat tactics and battle strategy under the tutelage of the elders down there. Nowhere else in the galaxy can you learn as you will learn there. When you are done, you will be uniquely equipped to protect the Prince, physically and mentally, from any dangers to him." Alvy glanced over at the whiteboard behind him on the wall, blank and clear. "When you return, the Prince will be a teenager. Perhaps by then, he'll have surprised you, and you'll find your specialized skills useful."

"He may not take my extended leave well," Kunzite mentioned, looking up at Alvy. "He's...he's grown fond of me."

"Of course he has," Alvy agreed. "But, I'm sure he'll be fine. And it's far more important you equip yourself to protect him later in his life." He gave a crooked little smile. "And, as a side note, Kunzite...Venus also plays host to the most beautiful women in the galaxy."

Kunzite rolled his eyes. "...noted," he mumbled.

"Off the record, Kunzite...it's not a bad place to have some fun. And if you were to, perhaps, have a little fun during your stay...I would hardly judge you." Alvy gave him a suggestive little look. "You're a young man, and we haven't neutered you, you have needs. And, once you get back...your opportunities might be thin."

"I'm sure I'll be quite busy on Venus," Kunzite said dismissively. "Thank you for the...suggestion, though."

"Very good on the record answer, Kunzite," Alvy said, giving a knowing nod. "And, yes, when you leave next year, be ready to be quite busy. However you view Prince Endymion right now, understand...a royal guardian can find himself doing literally anything in service to his charge."

"

Nephrite opened up the small, hand-sized, rectangular box, pulling a deck of thin playing cards out. Discarding the box to the floor, he set the deck down on the square table in front of him. "Jadeite."

Jadeite lifted his right hand up, pointing his fingers at the fresh deck of playing cards from the other side of the table. The cards began to levitate a few finger lengths up in the air, and then began to scramble all around, shuffling themselves into a randomized order.

"I still think it's a bad idea to allow him to do that," Zoisite muttered dryly, watching the deck mix up and down, the cards scrambling around between each other, from his seat to Jadeite's right.

"For the last time, my powers are purely physical," Jadeite said, only a fraction of his focus on utilizing his telekinesis to shuffle the deck of cards. "Come on, Zoi, you know that, I have no ability to see what's on those cards unless you put them in front of my eyes."

"Says you," Zoisite countered, propping his elbow up on the table surface and resting his chin in his palm.

"Says the people who trained me on Mars," Jadeite replied. "Believe me, if I had mental or spiritual powers on top of...this...they never would have let me leave Mars." He blinked a couple times as he continued to wash the deck about in mid-air. "I'd be kept in a cage, pumped full of stimulants, my blood constantly being drained so they could try to...replicate it."

"I don't think they're _that_ uncivilized over there," Nephrite commented as Jadeite set the deck of cards down in the center of the table.

"Oh, everyone's civilized until enough power gets involved," Jadeite said. "Alright, Full Deck Tyson?"

Before his fellow guardians could answer, the door to the small game room opened, admitting the elder member of Endymion's guard. Boots muted by the carpeted floor, Kunzite swiftly moved towards the square table.

"Deal you in, old man?" Jadeite asked.

"Sure," Kunzite said, quickly glancing around the room before going to the lone vacated seat and taking it. Jadeite began to use his psychic powers to distribute out the deck, taking the top card off and whisking it over to Zoisite, and then Nephrite, then Kunzite, then himself, repeating this process over and over.

"Stidham mix?" Jadeite asked, reaching his other hand up towards a shelf of crystal glassware over against the near wall, a single crystal tumbler levitating and floating over towards the table.

"Yes, thank you," Kunzite said. Immediately, a cabinet next to the shelf opened up, two bottles zooming through the air over behind Kunzite's head.

"How's the Prince?" Zoisite asked as the entire deck was eventually meted out to each of the four guardians, all four of them having thirteen cards.

"Very good, actually," Kunzite replied. "Wanted to be alone with Serenity." His face clouded a bit for just a moment. Behind his head, the two bottles had a portion of their contents poured into the glass, mixing the two concoctions together. A small plastic stick flew over and dipped into the drink, stirring it around energetically.

"Full Deck Tyson's the game," Jadeite mentioned as he reached forward and cautiously picked up his thirteen cards.

Kunzite nodded, reaching behind him and taking the glass, setting it down on the table. He glanced around the table, seeing each of his fellow guardians had a glass of their own.

He turned over to Nephrite. "The Prince needs something from you, actually." He reached forward to his own pile of cards.

"I'm listening," Nephrite replied, sipping from his glass.

"How's your network?" Kunzite asked, quickly scanning his hand of cards before looking back to Nephrite.

"Nine hundred and twenty-one strong," he answered, looking his own cards over. "Should be a thousand by the end of the year."

"And you've got good coverage on all the continents?" Kunzite questioned.

"I'm trying to expand it a bit more in the south, but...it's solid," Nephrite replied.

"Alright, pass two to the right," Zoisite instructed, taking two of his cards and dropping them off in front of Nephrite.

"I need you to call on your network of spies, and tell them to collect some information for the Prince. Specifically, he needs information about black market Imperium synthesizing. The formulas that black market chemists use, and the kinds of results that it produces." Kunzite grabbed two of his cards and set them in front of Jadeite. "The process, the ingredients, the end result, everything. As many as your network can dig up, he wants them."

"Well, that's...an interesting ask," Nephrite responded thoughtfully. "Might I ask why?"

Kunzite ducked his head a bit. "The Prince...wishes to produce a published work. Before his child is born. He wants it to be something...useful, something people might utilize, something that scholars could refer to. He wants to write a comprehensive collection of the methods by which black market Imperium chemists purify it. And he wants...he wants to do it from the ground up."

"Are you sure that's not Zoisite's area of expertise?" Nephrite asked, glancing over at the smallest, youngest member of Endymion's guard.

"Well, no, that's...Endymion doesn't want to refer to things written by others...a year ago, or four cycles ago, or even last cycle. He doesn't just want to sew together other people's findings. He wants to get the actual processes from the ground level, what people are using right now. As in, today, or tomorrow." Kunzite slowly nodded as he looked over his new hand.

Nephrite tossed a black card face-up into the center of the table with a few designs of a sword on it.

"Plus, I'm leaving tomorrow for Mercury for the negotiations," Zoisite added, looking over his cards.

"Still feels inappropriate, to let Princess Mercury negotiate the merger on behalf of the Moon like this," Jadeite mumbled, watching Kunzite toss a black card of half a dozen swords into the middle of the table.

"Shouldn't matter at all," Zoisite assured him. "There aren't any secrets between the Earth and the Moon, we both know exactly what the other has."

Kunzite nodded, suppressing a face twitch. "In any case, Nephrite, is that enough information?"

"I'll spread the word first thing tomorrow morning," Nephrite replied, lifting the drink to his lips again. "I'll report findings to you?"

"Yes," Kunzite answered, Jadeite and Zoisite discarding cards into the middle as well. Jadeite reached forward to take the pile of four cards. "And keep all this as secret as possible, outside of your network of spies I don't want this leaving this room."

"

Endymion gave Serenity's rear end a rough little squeeze, making her squeal and shiver underneath the covers. She looked over her shoulder, a playful grin on her face.

"Endy, what has gotten into you lately?" she asked, turning her body towards his. "These last few days, goodness—"

"I feel good," Endymion replied simply, a naughty smirk on his face as his hands continued to roam around underneath the blanket. " _Real_ good."

"Well...I like it," Serenity said, squirming away from him, giving him something to chase after. "Hopefully, you start feeling... _real_ good more from now on."

"Oh no you don't," Endymion said, quickly scooting over to her and wrapping his long arms around her, trapping her against his body and rolling over so she was on top of her. She gave a playful yelp. "You're not going anywhere without my permission, little lady."

She rested her head against his shoulder. "You might have been...pushing it a bit tonight, though," Serenity said. "Don't get me wrong...I appreciate your enthusiasm, but...putting your hand _there_ underneath the table, with your father and my mother sitting right there?" She shook her head. "Let's not fly too close to the sun."

Endymion just looked up at the ceiling. "I just can't help it. The sun's just too warm." He looked down at Serenity on his shoulder. "And you're just too beautiful."

Serenity giggled. "Well, I suppose before we know it, we won't be able to do this, so...let's have fun."

Endymion's bedroom was even bigger and bolder than Serenity's, and unlike hers, nothing was wasted. No space of wall was left bare, every section being used to support some painting or artifact, a seemingly endless ode to the countless gifts the Earth Prince had been granted in his life. Sculptures, studded with jewels and gems, carved by hand into complex designs inconceivable by most, were against many of the walls. The massive, four-poster bed was gilded with gold trimmings and covered in the finest silk in the galaxy. Marble pillars extended to the ceiling high above. On the left wall was a door that lead to the monstrous walk-in closet, and on the right wall a door that opened into a giant bathing chamber.

Excessive, yet not quite gaudy. Perfectly cultivated to Endymion's taste over years. A bedroom worthy of the heir to one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the galaxy.

He reached down towards Serenity's stomach, rubbing it gently. "What do you think? What's your...intuition? Boy or girl?"

Serenity gave another giggle at the stimulation of her sensitive belly. "Uh...you know, Endy, I just can't bring myself to care which." She kissed his neck. "As long as he or she is...healthy, I don't care, so...I don't even think about it."

She squirmed away from him slightly, lifting her right foot up, placing it up on Endymion's stomach and picking the blanket up a bit. Endymion looked down, finding a small beaded anklet wrapped around her ankle. One of the beads was red, the others white.

"Mars gave me this," Serenity explained, Endymion getting up into a semi-sitting position, reaching down to grab her ankle and lift her foot up to examine the little piece of jewelry. She twisted herself down the bed, orienting herself upside down to give Endymion a good look at it. "It's something they use down there, it...it's good for the baby. Eases the spirit, she said."

Endymion released her ankle, looking down at her head down by his knees. "That's good, Serenity. I like that."

"Mm," Serenity said, rotating herself back around on the bed. "You know, I need a nickname that you can use. Serenity, too many syllables, it's not fair that I get to call you Endy and you don't have anything for me."

Endymion ran his fingers through her golden blonde hair. "I don't mind."

"Seren is no good, that's...that doesn't sound right," Serenity muttered. "I don't know what it could be, though."

"Maybe I'll...come up with something," Endymion suggested. "Oh, sweetie, uh...I might be spending some time here or there away from the palace over the next handful of cycles. Maybe a day here, a day there...I don't entirely know, it's something with Kunzite."

"Is there a problem?" Serenity asked, cuddling up next to him.

"Oh, no, definitely not, it's...he wants to teach me some things now that I'm almost twenty. Some things that...well, I'd rather not get into the details." He nodded. "It's important, though."

"I believe you," Serenity replied.

Endymion reached up to the wall behind him, fingers finding a velvet rope. "White cake?"

"Oh, you just know me too well," Serenity responded as Endymion's fingers pulled the rope down slightly.

"

With a mechanical whir and hiss, the steel doors spread wide open, Kunzite being granted access to the massive warehouse. As he stepped out onto the metallic catwalk, he looked around the giant chamber, spying a row of assorted spaceships, docked into little bays along the ground. There was a wide variety of them, ranging from A-class transports, able to carry four people and a little cargo, meant for little jaunts to and from the Moon, to some even as large as C-class mass transit ships, holds large enough to carry perhaps sixty individuals to anywhere within the inner solar system. The room was not large enough for anything bigger, with the D-class ships and upward being held outdoors.

The clanking of Kunzite's footsteps drew the attention of two men in dark blue uniforms, standing close to a small control panel built into the catwalk. Both of them holding portable screens in their hands, they both stiffened on seeing the Earth General approach.

"U-uh...sir!" one of them called out, raising his right hand up to his forehead in a salute. "I...I wasn't told—"

"Yes, you weren't," Kunzite said simply. "Are you in charge here?"

"I...I have...some degree of authority," he stammered. "I don't own the place—"

"You supervise the scrapping of spaceships in this room, deconstructing them for scrap metal and equipment?" Kunzite asked, looking down at the row of ships beneath him. The air was full of metallic crunching and whirring as dozens of other workers buzzed about, pulling ships apart into small, manageable pieces. He glanced up at the man's chest for a brief moment, finding the nametag. "...Antonius?"

"Yes, sir," Antonius replied quickly. "I supervise."

Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest. "One-three-seven-eight-one, does that number mean anything to you?"

"U-uh…" Antonius ran his finger along his portable screen a few times, tapping it frantically. "That...that sounds like, yeah, er, yes, I have that right here! B-class transport, one of the Notre models from seven years ago, could seat about twenty people, we...uh, scheduled for deconstruction later today, actually."

"So it's still in one piece?" Kunzite asked.

"For the moment, yes," Antonius replied. "Actually, it's, uh…" he turned around, looking down the giant chamber, then pointed his right index finger off towards one of the ships beneath him. "I believe that that's it, right there!" He turned back to Kunzite. "Is there...some sort of problem?"

"Why is it being scrapped?" Kunzite continued, ignoring Antonius's questions as he spied the old, out-of-date starship off in the distance.

"Uh, it's old, sir, I...it was being used by a small corporation as a transport for its employees to and from company events, the...internal lighting gave out, and it wasn't really worth fixing because it was so old. These models, they...they were never that popular anyway, their regular cruising speed isn't that fast. They...they're one of the few B-classes that can jump through the asteroid belt, but that's not that desirable, so...it got retired." Antonius's eyes were dancing along the screen, taking in as much information as he could.

"But it still flies?" Kunzite asked. "It can safely make trips into space, through the asteroid belt?"

"I...based off what I'm seeing here, the only thing wrong is that all the internal lights went out. Not that I've tested it, or anything. But...I don't understand, it's out-of-date—"

"You are to reschedule the scrapping of that ship to another day. Tomorrow, if you'd like," Kunzite instructed. "And then tonight, you're going to let me in after closing, and I'm going to take it. Then, you will retroactively reschedule the scrapping of that ship to earlier today, and if it ever comes up for any reason with anyone, it was scrapped today. I'll bring assorted scrap with me tonight so you can put it in storage so things line up in the books."

Antonius, as well as the man standing right next to him, appraised Kunzite with a befuddled look.

"Uh...sir—"

Kunzite reached inside his gray uniform and pulled out two bundles of currency bills, pulling them out just enough to show them to the two men before tucking them back in. "Yes?"

"I...I don't understand—"

"I'm not asking you to understand. I'm not offering you three months' salary to understand," Kunzite continued. "You let me have that ship, I give you an equivalent amount of scrap, and you go about your life as if you scrapped the ship and that I was never here."

"...y-yeah, uh, yes! Yes sir, I can arrange all that!" Antonius said quickly. He turned to look over his shoulder. "Claudio, get down there and make sure that ship isn't touched!"

Before the worker could buzz off with his instructions, Kunzite took a few large steps forward, reaching inside his uniform again. He leaned forward towards the man, ducking close to him and shoving one of the bundles of creds into his chest. Taking the hint, Claudio quickly shoved it inside his own uniform's inside pocket, then spun around and ran off.

"Now, Antonius, if you were to somehow fall short in covering my presence here today up, and any knowledge of this ship's disappearance were to extend beyond me, you, and your underling over there...I'm going to find you, and I'm going to take far more than my money back." He pulled another bundle from inside is uniform out, quickly distributing it out over to the scrap supervisor.

"I-I know who you are, I believe you!" Antonius said. "That ship, we scrapped it today, it doesn't exist anymore, that's all there is to it!"

"I will see you tonight," Kunzite said, turning around and walking off. "There will be another three months' salary in it for you when I get the ship. Pleasure doing business."

"

"Believe me, Princess, I know gaudy," Zoisite said, an amused smirk on his face as he looked around the large bedroom chamber surrounding him. "I can admit that. I'm not going to pretend that I don't live in a giant palace filled with priceless artifacts and art, but this…"

Like the rest of the Mercury Palace, it was very clear that whoever had designed the bedroom of Princess Mercury wanted everyone inside it to know that they were in the room of someone who was fantastically wealthy. More than that, fantastically exceptional.

Everything was diamond-studded. It would have seemed excessive if it wasn't so overwhelming. The picture frames, the bed, the statues, the cabinets and shelves...even Endymion's bedroom would be put to shame by the conspicuous consumption showcased within the resting chamber of Princess Mercury. Rare, ancient, valuable trinkets from all across the galaxy covering everything. Thick tomes of leather-bound, gold-gilded books filled in the gaps between those baubles.

"It's...it's my mother, really," Mercury insisted, blushing a bit as she looked around the room. "I, I'm not such a big fan of it...it is a little obscene, I agree entirely."

"Oh, far be it from me to criticize anyone for showing off, Your Highness," Zoisite insisted. "If I had the means for it, I might do the same thing."

"Mercury's just...such a small planet," Mercury mused. "I think my mother gets a little self-conscious about that, tries to beat people over the head with wealth." She looked around the room again, shrugging. "But, if I changed things in here, it wouldn't match the rest of the palace, so…"

Zoisite pointed over at a golden urn on one of the shelves across the room. "Interesting choice, sleeping in the same room with the ashes of Lord Sexton of Neptune."

Mercury's interest was immediately piqued, looking over at the urn Zoisite indicated. "H-how did you know from here?"

"The way the urn is rounded at the neck, distinctively a Neptune design," Zoisite replied quickly. "From twelve hundred earth years ago, approximately. And then, if you look very closely at the lip, those little black dots were used to signify the importance of the individual within when he or she was alive. I count ten dots, which means the person within was...very, very, very significant. During that particular art era on Neptune when urns were made in that manner, I can think of only two people who would have been considered that significant. And I know that the ashes of Queen Riswald are kept in the Neptune Palace, along with the ashes of the rest of the royal family of Neptune, meaning…Lord Sexton of Neptune."

"Okay, if your goal was to impress me...consider me...moderately impressed," Mercury said with a small smile. "Now do the Ocarina on the shelf right below it."

Zoisite languidly looked over at the small, oval-shaped wind instrument. He got up and walked over to it, quickly giving it a once-over. Bronze-colored with a slightly rounded tip and a couple of little symbols etched into the neck, Zoisite quickly turned back to the Princess of the planet closest to the sun.

"Luna, one of the shrine maidens of the Deva Shrine on the Moon nine hundred years ago. She composed the Hymn of Light on this Ocarina. The symbols on the neck give it away, please don't tell me _this_ impresses you." He turned back to Mercury.

"Oh, how were you not born on this planet?" Mercury asked, propping her chin up on her elbow.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was educated on this planet," Zoisite pointed out, going back to the desk against the wall where Mercury sat.

"I know, but...your mind, it's more than just the classes and lessons you had here, it's...you should be here, uncovering the secrets of the universe with us, you'd fit right in. Maybe even more than just fitting in." Mercury turned back to the large sheet of paper in front of her on the desk.

"Well...here, I wouldn't stand out," Zoisite reasoned. "On Earth, I stand out, that's kind of nice." He walked back over to the desk, stopping behind Mercury.

"Prefer to play the big fish in a small pond?" Mercury asked, almost tauntingly.

"Between Earth and Mercury, which planet do you think would make the most sense being equated to a small pond?" Zoisite teased back.

Mercury pointed over at Zoisite. "See, that's the kind of talk that makes my mother put diamonds in everything." She looked down at the sheet in front of her. "Alright, we...we should get started on figuring out how this merger is going to happen."

"

"Once again, _so, so_ incredibly sorry, Your Highness," the maid jabbered as she nervously straightened out the outfit hanging from the metallic rack, hands shaking. Endymion sat on the right edge of his bed, clad in a purple silk robe and slippers, observing her shaking form pull the rack over towards him. "There was a mixup, t-this should have been here before you woke up, I'm so sorry, it will _never_ happen again."

Endymion just took in a slow breath, smiling over at the servant girl.

"It's—"

"What are you so concerned about?" Endymion asked, voice gentle yet commanding. The girl was quite pleasant to look at, a slim figure with good curves visible underneath the red and blue maid uniform of the Earth Palace, short brown curly hair falling down over her face. "Do I look uncomfortable in my robes?"

"It...I'm so sorry, Your Highness." She turned to the Prince, bowing very deeply towards him, head ducking near her knees.

"Come here," Endymion requested. She was quick to comply, coming up just a couple steps away from him as he stood up. "What's your name?"

"J-Julia," she answered, keeping her gaze down towards the floor.

"Julia, I'm about to get married to the woman I love, a marriage that will bring two strong Kingdoms together. I assure you, whatever...issues may have been caused by my new clothes not being delivered to me on time, they are easily forgotten in light of the many wonders in my life right now." He looked over at the outfit hanging on the rack. "Why, I'm quite sure by this afternoon, I'll have forgotten this entirely. Unless, of course, a particular maid were to make such a spectacle of herself over such a trivial matter, that I _couldn't_ quite forget it. Does that make sense to you?"

With wide eyes, Julia nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."

The bedroom door opened, Kunzite's large, muscular frame entering the bedroom chamber.

"Why don't you run along?" Endymion suggested. "Put this from your mind." He reached up to clap her shoulder, causing her to wince. "Next cycle, you'll have a brand new opportunity to deliver my new clothes to me, worry yourself over doing better then instead of what you did this time."

She bowed low again, and then scurried off past Kunzite, who simply watched her go.

"Problem?" he asked as soon as the servant girl was out of the room.

"None whatsoever," Endymion replied, turning to look over his shoulder at his guardian. "And you?"

Kunzite glanced about the room quickly, then turned to his charge. "When you're ready, come with me."

Endymion's expression immediately hardened, detecting the serious tone in Kunzite's voice and sensing what subject matter he was referring to. "I'll be right there."

He began to shrug off his robes, Kunzite turning to exit the room.

"

Endymion couldn't help but feel rather uncomfortable in this unfamiliar territory. It was likely safe, he knew that, but a derelict scrapyard was nothing like the palaces and luxury establishments that the Prince of Earth knew almost exclusively through nearly two decades of life. Everything was dirty, piles and piles of scrap metal jagged and rusty, looking quite threatening. Just being here almost made him feel itchy and anxious.

The two were marching through a dirt path between massive piles of scrap, Kunzite guiding the young Prince through the mountains of abandoned ship parts.

"I just...love the atmosphere," Endymion muttered under his breath. He was wearing a large, hooded cloak, covering his head and upper body, Kunzite wearing an identical one.

After a few dozen more paces, they had arrived at a modest-sized ship, nestled in between mounds of scrap, covered by a giant red tarp that was tied down by several steel chains. A square-shaped, box-like ship, Endymion stopped to survey it from the outside. Black and brown with faded paint jobs all along the sides, it was nothing like the opulent starships Endymion knew.

The hatch up into the body of the ship already open, a metal ladder extending up, Kunzite went up to it and began to climb upward, Endymion right behind him.

The insides of the ship were no better than the outsides, a rusted chamber smaller than Endymion's bedroom, a few long tables providing the only real flavor. A trio of burlap sacks were huddled together in the far corner. Endymion looked around as a flood of lights engulfed the room after Kunzite flipped a switch against the near wall.

The hatch beneath their feet closed, and Kunzite turned to Endymion.

"Alright," Kunzite began. "After reviewing the state of the black market for Imperium, if this venture is to be worth the effort, then we will have to refine and synthesize the product ourselves. Finding black market chemists who will be willing to pay what this raw Imperium is worth would be very difficult, and it's far more lucrative to sell directly to a distributor. As such, I will be synthesizing our product, in this ship." He went over to one of the tables, reaching underneath it and pulling out a drawer from underneath it. The drawer contained a couple dozen sheets of paper, each one filled with detailed writings. "Over the last twenty days, Nephrite's network of spies has collected detailed information on various procedures and formulas for synthesization, his findings being summarized on these." He pressed the stack of papers down a bit.

Endymion went up to the open drawer, looking down at the stack, reaching down into it and lifting them up. He flipped through them briefly, not absorbing any of the information on them, before putting them back.

"Now, all of these formulas do result in a non-trivial loss of purity for the product. Ranging from eleven to thirty-eight percent loss. I believe that a proper following of instruction, as well as a clean environment for the procedure, could reduce that loss significantly. But with a product as pure as this, we are in uncharted waters." He pointed at the bags in the corner. "Generally, the smaller the loss of purity, the more complicated the procedure is, and the harder the ingredients are to obtain. But, I believe I've found one particular procedure that will work for us, and in my hands can produce a purity loss of less than ten percent."

Endymion went over to the bags, opening one up to find assorted jars and canisters, each one labeled. He didn't particularly recognize any of them, and didn't take much time to absorb any of the information within.

"So, here's what we can do. I will fly this ship out past the belt, out into the space zones just beyond the outer edges of the belt. There's little traffic around there. I can synthesize the Imperium out there, dumping the resulting waste and exhaust into space, where it will disperse and never be detected. I return, and then I find distributors with enough capital to afford our product. We keep the ship stored here, the man who owns this junkyard seems perfectly happy to allow us to keep it here so long as we keep paying him. The way I see it, a couple times a cycle, I stop off on the moon, pick up the raw Imperium, head off to synthesize it, and then sell it off. I'll have to be careful, but people aren't going to look twice at a member of the royal guard spending some time away and doing odd things. There will be difficulties, but...it just might work, Your Highness."

Endymion nodded. "This ship is safe?"

"I've vetted it myself. It's old, but it will serve its purpose, I'm confident in that." Kunzite looked around. "I need an assistant for the synthesization, this process needs an extra pair of hands, so…" He turned back to his charge. "Zoisite is going to be busy for the foreseeable future, so not him. Jadeite's powers might prove useful, although his...demeanor gives me small pause. Nephrite should be adequate. I understand neither is the brightest, but that should be fine for my needs. I thought I'd ask you which one you'd prefer to bring in to this."

Endymion exhaled slowly, then ran his fingers along the surface of one of the tables. "I think you've already got your assistant. You're looking at him right now."

Kunzite's forehead wrinkled. "Your Majesty, you can't be serious."

"You said the ship is safe," Endymion pointed out. "Besides, I told you I wanted something to do with my time."

Kunzite sighed. "Your Highness. In the...admittedly astronomically unlikely event that this ship were to be caught by the authorities in the middle of synthesization, you need to maintain plausible deniability. You being on the ship, assisting with the synthesization, would render that quite _implausible_."

"You're my most trusted guardian and general," Endymion countered. "I doubt very much that I'd be able to deny much of anything either way."

"And beyond that, why would you want to waste your time and effort on something like this? You're the Crown Prince of Earth, you have far more important things to do than play lab assistant."

"Look, I…" Endymion glanced back over at the burlap sacks in the corner for a moment. "When I...when I said I wanted to do this, I wasn't thinking that I'd just send my guardians off to handle everything while I sit in the palace...getting massages and having servant girls practically kissing my feet in fear because they think that minor infractions warrant the death penalty." He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I wanted."

"That's what we're here for," Kunzite insisted.

"It's...it's not fair. Wouldn't be fair to you, it's not right," Endymion insisted. "This is my decision, it would be wrong for me not to involve myself in it. I've already given Serenity notice that I'll be spending occasional time away from the palace in the future, nobody looks twice at a royal spending time alone with his most trusted general and guardian." He nodded. "I'm your assistant."

"...is that an order?" Kunzite asked.

"Does it need to be?" Endymion re-asked.

Kunzite gave a frustrated little glance around the inside of the ship. But, resigned to having to accept the situation, he finally nodded over to his charge. "Well...very well, then." He took a slow step over towards the middle of the chamber. "At this point…"

He gestured around him with both hands, a dramatic little flourish.

"...we're ready to go, Your Highness."


	6. The Allegory of the Cave

Chapter 06: The Allegory of the Cave

Dozens of generations ago, when it actually became technologically possible to mine minerals off of asteroids, it quickly became evident that control of the galaxy for the foreseeable future would be partially determined by who had access to the lucrative treasures within the asteroid belt. Mars and Jupiter argued valiantly that, as they were the two planets closest to the belt, it should belong to them, but ultimately failed to convince anyone else. Rather than fight a massive, multi-way war over control of the valuable region that would likely result in the long-term end of galactic diplomacy and trillions of deaths, the Kingdoms of the solar system begrudgingly decided to share.

Nowadays, mining shuttles bearing the flag of every planet in the galaxy could be found buzzing about from rock to rock, looking for precious commodities to grab. Even after hundreds and hundreds of years, there were still resources to find, and surprisingly there had been relatively little friction between Kingdoms over who had the rights to what. For the time being, there was enough to go around.

A massive circumstellar disc made up of countless assorted asteroids, forever orbiting the sun, ranging from small boulders that you could easily find in an Earth forest, to some big enough to be classified by scientists as a minor planet, the belt was truly fascinating. Although many of the space rocks within were worthless and uninteresting, if you searched long enough you could eventually find just about anything. Of course, for as valuable as it was, it was also quite dangerous, with so many haphazard pieces of space rock flying about, so if you wanted to pass through it without taking a large amount of risk, you either took the long way around, or you jumped through it.

Although A-class cruisers couldn't yet manage the jump, and most B-class ones couldn't either, the Notre-model had been marketed as a rare small transport that could do it. As it turned out, such capabilities weren't in high demand, and there wasn't much interest in the otherwise-unremarkable class of starship. However, for a particular Prince and his most loyal guardian, it was just perfect.

Coming out of its jump about ten million dolichos past the outer edges of the belt, still a good twenty or twenty-five million dolichos short of Jupiter's orbit, the salvaged ship was now just resting in a holding pattern, subject entirely to orbital forces. In the highly, highly unlikely event that someone came across it, it would seem abandoned. Why would a ship like this be in a location like that, after all?

"Alright," Kunzite muttered as he pulled a metal rod from a hole on the main driver's console of the ship, looking around the displays in front of him. "As long as nobody happens to see our jump residue and gets...unreasonably suspicious, I can't imagine being found here."

Endymion was studying the sheet of paper Kunzite had placed on one of the metal tables, squinting down at the finely curated writings of his general.

"And even in that case, before long, we'll have orbited so far away from our jump exit that they'll still be unlikely to find us," Kunzite added.

"Alright, let's get started," Endymion said, clapping his hands together as he set the formula instructions down.

"Wait. Before we start, how are you doing?" Kunzite asked, not yet moving from the front of the ship, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Um...good, fine, um...what do you mean?" Endymion asked.

"Your Highness, I need you to be open with me. You can't be open with anyone else, not on this matter," Kunzite insisted. "You have to—"

"Oh," Endymion interrupted. "That." With a dismissive glance at Kunzite, he shrugged. "Look, buddy, I don't know how many ways I can say it, we've had this discussion over and over, I'm fine."

"Endymion, I mean it," Kunzite said warningly. "You killed a man. Executed him when he was helpless. I know you, you are _not_ the type to shrug that off, and if you're unwilling to work through it with me then it _will_ get worse."

"I don't know what you want from me," Endymion insisted. "Look, I'm...I'm sorry, you're right, I should have let you do it, but...I mean, it was justice."

Kunzite walked up to him rapidly. "Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that—"

Endymion put his hand out towards his guardian. "Okay, Kunzite, I'm giving you an order, drop this," he said emphatically. "We had this conversation back in the moon mines, we've had it at least five times in the palace since we got back, and now we're having it again, and we're not getting anywhere with it. I'm perfectly fine, I...he had to go." He turned to look at the sacks in the corner. "Besides...who was he?"

Kunzite blinked over at his charge for a moment. "...a miner?"

"A miner, one of...one of millions upon millions of miners in this galaxy," Endymion continued. "Trillions of people in this solar system living a life of more value and note than him. Wife and kids...most men have those," he reasoned. "What's a man without a wife and children? What's notable about that?" He shook his head. "I sit here, trying to...secure the future of my Kingdom, twist the balance of power in the galaxy for centuries, and I should be...curling up into a ball and crying because I killed one miner?"

Kunzite slowly approached Endymion, eyes trained on him, boots clanking lightly on the metal floor.

"What I do here, these actions that I take, the decisions I make with regard to that Imperium vein...those are the things that matter." Endymion bit his lower lip. "Not...not depriving the galaxy of one middle-aged miner."

Kunzite sat down next to Endymion, eyes not dropping from conducting a very close examination of him. Endymion finally flinched a bit under the unceasing stare, twitching his head a bit towards his guardian before turning to look at him.

"L-look, Kunzite, do you not believe me?" Endymion asked, sounding slightly agitated. "Is that what this is, you just don't believe me?"

"Actually, Your Highness...I think I do believe you," Kunzite said after a brief moment, a look of confusion on his face.

"Okay, so, can we get started?" Endymion asked.

Kunzite nodded, shaking his slight haze of bewilderment off and turning his focus to his job. "Alright, go get the block of Grenyx, we need to turn it into a powder," he said, standing up and finally breaking his gaze with his charge. "I'll prepare the space."

"

Zoisite had his right hand up against his face, covering his mouth and nose, eyes flicking back and forth like a metronome between the document on the desk in front of him and Princess Mercury.

Despite Mercury's upbringing of tremendous wealth and luxury, Zoisite had to give her credit. She knew how to be very persuasive, using politeness and appealing to emotion all at the same time. Zoisite very much doubted Mercury ever had to beg for anything in her life, with everything she could ever want being a snap of her fingers away, but she seemed to have a gift for it. Her wide-eyed, semi-panicked, slightly-sad expression had a way of pulling on his heartstrings, almost enough to convince him to make an otherwise undesirable decision.

But then, no.

"It doesn't make any sense for us," Zoisite said reluctantly, dropping his right hand down to the desk and letting it rest there.

"I'm not saying it does," Mercury countered patiently, tapping her left index finger on the document before Zoisite. "But that doesn't mean it can't be accepted."

"Yes, it does," Zoisite replied, picking up a small pen from the desk and lifting it to his mouth. "Mercury, we're already allowing the Moon to keep possession of...of the Moon Chalice, the Holy Grail, the Crystal Carillon, all those things will remain within the Moon Palace, now and forever. Even though, were it not for this union, the Moon would probably be auctioning those things off to the highest bidder inside of five years."

Mercury nodded. "Yes, and the Earth, and by extension you, have been very, very generous in doing so. You could have demanded the Moon hand those things over, and you didn't. That was a very kind gesture." She tapped the document. "I'm merely asking you make another kind gesture."

Zoisite rubbed at his right temple. "Your Highness—"

"Mercury," the Princess interrupted. "Please, just...just Mercury. I insist."

"...Mercury, that vault...there's no historical significance to the items inside there," Zoisite said. "There's nothing holding them to the Moon specifically. There's no particular reason why they should be kept on the Moon."

"But there's no reason why they should be taken to Earth," Mercury said. "Please, they'll be perfectly safe and secure in the Moon Palace vaults, if you wish to inspect the security there I invite the Earth to do so as many times as they wish, the Queen will gladly allow that."

"I'm not concerned about security, I…" Zoisite faltered for a moment, trying to find some way to express his thoughts eloquently. "Mercury, we...the Earth, needs some trophies from this."

Mercury clapped her little hands together in front of her. "There! You say it, you just said it! What is that collection of jewelry but a trophy? Symbolic! Hardly significant in the grand scheme, not worth a dispute over! Just...let it stay where it is. The Moon will be a territory of Earth now, anyway, the difference is trivial!"

Zoisite sighed. "Mercury, King...King Kasios's generosity _does_ have a ceiling." He dropped the pen back to the desk. "The Earth has already agreed to...revamp the entire education system of the Moon, take on massive infrastructure updates, improve tourism, the list goes on. Expensive, time-consuming, difficult tasks that the Earth takes on, with...frankly, limited return on investment." He leaned forward towards Mercury, sitting on the right side of the desk. "Now, King Kasios has agreed to take these things on, but he knows exactly what they are. Burdens." He pointed up toward the ceiling. "You and I both know that the Moon mines will never produce significant resources again, there's nothing left up there. He's not doing this as an investment."

Mercury nodded. "Yes, but—"

"P-Please, let me finish," Zoisite asked. "So, King Kasios needs…" he grimaced, glancing about Mercury's bedroom. "...He needs submission. He needs tokens of supplication. He needs the Moon to...to bend the knee. And something like the contents of that vault, that's how the Moon can show respect and gratitude to him. He needs enough of those things, so that, when this merger is over, he has enough evidence to point to that says 'The Moon has submitted itself to me. I saved the Moon, I bailed them out, and they handed over their riches and valuables and marked themselves as belonging to me'." Zoisite shrugged. "If we agree to this, then...then you get King Kasios starting to ask...why should I accept this merger?"

Mercury looked down somewhat sadly, thinking for a moment.

"I'm sorry," Zoisite said. "King Kasios is...well, he's human. He needs to get something out of this."

"Zoisite," Mercury began. "The Serenities could have gotten any one of their government bean counters to...to handle this merger. It would have been normal to do that, even, expected. But they got me, because they think of me the smartest individual in the solar system, and they believed that if _anyone_ could secure a favorable union, it would be me. If anyone could squeeze out a little extra give in this arrangement, it'd be me. So, Princess Serenity, my good friend, has trusted me with this task, under the assumption that I'd be able to find these little concessions and edges that nobody else could. Trusting me with that." The Princess swallowed down hard. "If I go to her with...with a merger agreement that's...no different than what a generic official in the Royal Court of the Moon could have put together, then...I've betrayed her trust."

Zoisite nodded, mentally pulling himself between two strong points of force.

"And, well...simply put, Zoisite...you're too smart," Mercury conceded. "You know everything about the Earth, about the Moon, I haven't been able to get anything past you, and I doubt I'll be able to, you...you're aware of everything." Mercury grimaced. "So, I'm...I'm asking you. Just give me a few things, give me something to report back to the Serenities." She pressed her hands up to her chest. "Don't make me look like a fool. Please."

Zoisite sighed. "Mercury. I have my own superiors to report back to," he pointed out. "The King trusted me with this under the belief that I'd secure the best deal possible for the Earth, something...fair and sensible given the many concessions we've already made. I have to justify everything I do to him, and...well, knowingly deceiving the King of Earth isn't something I'm willing to do."

"B-but, you could," Mercury said. "You're certainly capable of disguising...minor concessions and little white lies within a merger as large and complex as this one, aren't you?" Mercury rapped her fingertips on the desk surface a few times. "This is going to be a massive, massive collection of documents when we're done, surely King Kasios won't be going over every inch of it. That's what you're for!"

Zoisite gave a little non-committing shrug. "Perhaps. But it wouldn't sit well with me."

"O-okay," Mercury continued. "Which master do you serve?"

Zoisite squinted, spinning his head over to meet Mercury's gaze. "Hm?"

"N-not...not for this particular task, not who asked you to negotiate this union, but...who is your master? Who have you devoted your life to obeying, protecting, following?" Mercury prodded, voice suddenly picking up in energy slightly.

"Prince Endymion," Zoisite replied matter-of-factly.

"Yes!" Mercury enthused. "And, ask yourself this, what does Prince Endymion value more? Does he care more about...if the Earth were to come into possession of some trinkets, or if the woman that he loves is...is happy, because the Kingdom that was her birthright got a little bit of a break when they practically had to beg for a bailout? If he were here, giving his opinion, what do you think _he_ would want? He's the one you answer to, not King Kasios!"

Zoisite stared down at a spot on the desk for a few moments. "Okay, perhaps, but...how far does it run?" he asked. "You've already pressed me on...mining yield percentages and water imports, now this, what's next?"

"Okay, okay," Mercury said. "I...if you give me some wiggle room on this, just...just a few things that I can give to the Serenities with pride, some things to make them feel good about themselves…" she gestured over at Zoisite. "Then, I'll owe you. I will owe you."

Zoisite blinked over at Mercury for several seconds. "Owe me what?"

Ami shrugged. "I don't know, but...I'll owe you. Whatever that might mean one day, whatever it results in...I owe you." She leaned in close to Zoisite, ducking her head down slightly towards the desk surface. "Come on, look around you, look at our history, which I know you're familiar with, we pay our debts! You think I'm just going to...say something like that and then just forget it?"

Zoisite picked the pen back up and brought it up to his mouth, putting the tip in between his lips and nibbling on it.

"Zoisite. The Serenities need a break. Trust me, it's humiliating for them, agreeing to this. Regardless of the fact that she loves Endymion, this is a crushing blow to the Royal Family of the Moon to have to agree to this! She...she could use a little break."

Zoisite rolled his eyes, bringing the pen back down to the desk surface with a dull little clank. "Alright, I...the Moon keeps that vault."

Mercury beamed over at the general of Earth, bringing her right hand up and resting it on his left shoulder. Zoisite froze at the physical contact, glancing over at the Princess with a curious look. Not to be deterred, Mercury leaned in towards Zoisite's ear.

"Akila," she whispered.

Zoisite flinched upward, thinking about the single word for a moment, before continuing to give a confused look.

"Akila," Mercury repeated. "That's my given name. Akila." She nodded.

Zoisite was taken aback slightly. "That...Princess, a royal's given name isn't to be revealed to anyone outside the royal family until after death."

Mercury shrugged. "Well...I thought, you know...it was fair." She went slightly red. "It'll be our little secret, you know?"

Zoisite continued to stare blankly at Mercury. Given names for royals in every Kingdom outside of the Earth and the Moon were very private. To think that Princess Mercury would give hers up for so small an agreement...he did not think he could be surprised by anything that could happen in this room, but he found himself very surprised by that.

"Yes? Our secret?" Mercury reiterated.

"Y-yes," Zoisite stammered. "Our secret."

"Now, perhaps we could...re-consider the water import amount?" Mercury said hopefully. "It's just, it's such a precious commodity, so rare on the Moon, they _really_ could use every bit you can spare."

Zoisite bit his cheek as Mercury continued, a faint sense of foreboding creeping into his mind.

Maybe she _could_ get something past him after all.

"

Endymion stared through the large window, giving him a view to watch the large tray full of Imperium Crystals as they were bathed in powerful beams of concentrated ultraviolet rays, the final touch of a long and complex synthesization process.

The crystals looked much the same as they did when raw outside of the fact that they had been formed into perfectly symmetrical cubes, although his eyes were able to just barely make out faint imperfections and a barely noticeable drop in clarity. A slight milkiness could be found within the crystals now, an unavoidable side effect of refining the material.

"Endymion, what...what we just did, what we just went through, that's the process, that's really all it is, you can't _possibly_ want to continue to do this," Kunzite said from across the room, carefully stacking up a collection of tin bowls after cleaning them. "You're one of the powerful, important people in the galaxy, you have access to practically everything in the known universe, you're about to become a husband and father, how could you possibly even want to spend another moment of your life on...processing raw Imperium?"

"I liked it," Endymion protested, looking over at his guardian. "Working with my hands, it was fun, it was interesting. I don't get to do that very often. It was nice."

"Your Highness, if you want to work with your hands, I could come up with any one of _thousands_ of different hobbies you could pick up. All of which can be done in the palace, and all of which are legal!" Kunzite was starting to sound exasperated now. "Start a little personal garden, take up sculpting, make pottery, I...please, just let me bring Nephrite along next time! He's your guardian, same as me, he's honor-bound to serve you and I'm sure this secret will be safe with him."

"Maybe," Endymion said dismissively. "Soon, my child will be born, and I'll have much less time, until then...I'd like to continue."

Kunzite gave a little grumble. "I'm supposed to protect you, it...I don't feel like I've done a good job of that lately." He glanced about the ship interior. "The mines, now this...the people who trained me would not approve of the things I've exposed you to in the last cycle."

"Well, your first priority is to follow my orders, that's...that's above protecting me," Endymion reminded him. "That supersedes everything, and...well, I've been giving you a lot of orders lately that have been exposing me to these things. So, it's not on you."

Kunzite picked up a small tray full of a black powder. "I just...I never thought those two things would keep running in opposition to each other so much." He went over to the wall behind him, grabbing a steel handle and pulling it towards him. It opened up into a small chute, and he dumped the powder in. Closing the chute, he pushed a small red button to the immediate left of the handle and then pulled down a tiny lever to the immediate right of it. Right on the other side of the wall of the ship, a panel slid open, the powder being ejected out into space, dispersing about, never again to make a meaningful impact in the universe.

"Last chance, incidentally."

"I'm sorry?" Endymion turned to look at Kunzite as he finished cleaning up the tables.

"This is the last chance to back out," Kunzite expanded. "I can take everything we just refined, eject it out into space, head back to Earth, send this ship crashing into the sun or let it fly blindly into the asteroid belt, and we forget about this. Once we actually start selling the refined product, it may be difficult to...turn back."

Endymion gave a wan smile. "Noted."

The U.V. rays that were being pumped onto the refined Imperium suddenly shut off, the door into the chamber unlocking. Kunzite immediately went over behind the Prince, who was reaching up to grab the stainless steel handle of the oven.

"Don't touch the tray yet," Kunzite instructed as Endymion slowly opened the chamber up, a slight rush of air sucking into the oven as it was equalized with the rest of the ship interior. Throwing the hinged door open wide, Endymion stepped to the side as Kunzite reached a small handheld tool into the tray, a thin steel rod that he touched up against one of the cubes. A reader at the top of the tool began to display some numbers out to the general.

"Alright, it's refined," Kunzite mumbled. "And...let's see here…"

Endymion crowded up behind Kunzite, watching as the display lit up with numbers before coming to rest on one particular readout.

 _91.21%_

"There we have it," Kunzite said. Sliding the reader into his chest pocket, he pulled out a pair of steel tweezers and used it to grab one of the shaped cubes of Imperium.

"That's...that's more than ten percent than the purest that's ever been made, isn't it?" Endymion asked slowly, watching Kunzite take the cube over to one of the tables, where a small, funnel-shaped object was waiting for him.

"Yes it is, and...assuming the correlation holds at these levels, then…"

Without finishing the thought, Kunzite took a scalpel from the table surface right next to the funnel. As he lowered it towards the cube, the sharp end began to glow a bright green. Using this tiny, precise tool, he scraped a very tiny corner off the Imperium, and then delicately lifted the scalpel up to the funnel mouth, scraping laying on the broad side of the knife.

He dropped the shaving into the funnel. After a moment, a small lightbulb on the side of the funnel began to output a strong and piercing light. Kunzite's attention went to a reader on the opposite side of the funnel, tapping his finger along a couple of buttons next to a screen.

"Then?" Endymion prompted after a moment.

Kunzite looked up. "It's holding. Imperium output is still parabolic past ninety percent purity."

Endymion felt like a cool little flood was being injected into his stomach at these words, significance of this hitting him hard, magnitude of what he had created not lost on him.

Kunzite held the cube back up in the tweezers. "So, this one cube, a single uncia...if the agency had their hands on it, they'd charge a hundred thousand creds for it. So black market, discount it to...eighty-two, maybe eighty-three thousand."

"That's directly to the customer?" Endymion asked, putting his thumb up near his mouth and nibbling on the tip of it.

"Right, we...we find a distributor who can handle a product like this, I'd say…thirty-five thousand creds per uncia, or four hundred thousand a libra."

"Four hundred thousand?" Endymion turned back to look at the open oven, at the tray loaded with refined Imperium cubes, brain greedily trying to do the math. "And we made...twelve libras worth?"

"We'll weigh it manually to be sure, but...yes, twelve libras was the target output."

Endymion bobbed his head up and down. "Alright. Okay then." He reached over and clapped Kunzite on his left shoulder with his right hand. "Um, forgive me for sounding out of touch, but...how much does the _average_ Earth citizen make in a day's work?"

Kunzite couldn't help but give a little smile, in spite of the reservations that never stopped buzzing around in the back of his head, even as he forced himself to ignore them. "Less."

Endymion continued to nod, amused by Kunzite's rare display of dry wit, and then his face suddenly went blank. "The Qesem."

"I'm sorry, Your Highness?" Kunzite asked as Endymion removed his hand from his shoulder.

"I've got it." He pointed down at the floor beneath his feet. "The Qesem, that what we'll call it," he said. "This ship, that's what it'll be. _The Qesem_."

"Named for the cave, I presume?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion nodded. "Qesem Cave, believed to be the first place on Earth where human beings utilized fire as a tool, maybe...three hundred thousand years ago. The first real piece of technology that Earth humans gained access to, the...the first step that Terrans took on the way to becoming the masters of the universe."

"Appropriate, Your Highness." Kunzite went over to the tray and replaced the cube of Imperium.

"Suddenly, they could...they could provide heat in the coldest of temperatures, they could prepare food, boil water, even use it as a weapon of mass destruction. A whole world of opportunities was suddenly...opened up to our ancestors." He nodded, brow wrinkled in thought. "There was a day. A day, maybe four hundred thousand years ago, where...where Earth humans entered that cave as...weak, irrelevant, fragile little creatures, not any more or less likely to survive or become the dominant species...than any one of dozens of different predatory animals that roamed the world at the time." He chuckled. "And, on that day, when those humans left that cave...they came out as Lords of all around them." He snapped the fingers of his right hand. "Just like that, they were the masters of the planet."

Kunzite tapped his fingertips against the lip of the tray, testing the temperature, before he reached forward and pulled the entire container out.

"We'll never know what happened that day. Never know if whoever came up with it had...any grasp of the significance of what he had created, if he even had the mental faculties to understand it." He looked down at the cubes of Imperium Crystal in the tray as Kunzite set them down on a table surface. "But, I'll say this. Me, looking at what we've created here today...I think I grasp it."

"Now, when we get back, I'll start looking for a distributor with enough capital to buy what we have," Kunzite said. "I sincerely hope you're comfortable with me handling that side of things, I... _really_ would prefer you not be involved in that."

Endymion nodded languidly.

"If you feel you absolutely must find ways to be part of this, then...we need to figure out the logistics of the money. Where we keep it, how we justify having it, we...we can't just start dumping millions of creds into our vaults and hope that nobody notices that the books don't balance."

"We'll come up with something," Endymion said casually.

Kunzite looked back over at the funnel-shaped reader on the table, the bulb on the side still glowing powerful. "You know, that...tiny little shred I put in there, just that little shaving. It'll power that light for tens of thousands of years. Maybe more, maybe...hundreds of thousands."

Endymion turned his head a bit to stare over at the burning light. "Well. The work we do here. It'll power the Kingdom of Earth for tens of thousands of years. So I suppose that's about right."

"

If you wanted an intellectual, you went to Mercury. A beauty, try Venus. A spiritual devotee with powers beyond scientific understanding, Mars. A big brawny brawler, head to Jupiter.

But if you wanted anything else, you'd go to Earth.

The last true melting pot in the galaxy, Earth had a bit of everything. You could find people of all shapes, sizes, creeds, beliefs, and backgrounds. Such diversity was often a boon and often a drawback, but above all else, it made the populace and the landscape of the planet stand out. So, while you could certainly find very rich and well-to-do areas all across the continents of Earth, you could find plenty of over-crowded, under-developed, dirty areas filled with the less fortunate and the less noble.

Latium was one such locale, a city a handful of leagues away from the capital city that mostly served as a place for the lower rung civilians to live, yet still live close enough to the capital to work there. Necessary, important, and yet inevitably problematic. If the capital city was a shining beacon on a hill, then Latium was certainly the valley beneath it. Ultimately, people just didn't quite treat their environment with as much respect when their wasn't as much money around.

Kunzite, for his part, felt quite silly, having traded in his Earth general uniform for a basic, generic tunic and overcoat, doing his very best to blend in with the working-class environment. Walking down a sparsely-populated street, this one particularly low-class and under-developed even by the standards of the rest of the city, he found himself digging deep into his training to not stand out.

He carried himself regally pretty much always, a natural side effect of spending your life among royalty. He tried hunching over, putting little imperfections in his gait, throwing in an occasional little nervous tic or twitch in his gestures. Whatever he could do to seem more common. All in all, he couldn't wait to be back in the palace.

To his right, a brick building, maybe seven stories tall, some sort of cheap housing complex. To his left, a four-lane street, concrete pocked and marked, clearly indicating that a lot of the vehicles used in this area used wheels still, another telling sign of the state of the populace.

A dozen paces ahead of him, in a small alley between two buildings, a man wearing dirty grey close and a fashionless hat was leaning up against the far wall, just barely visible from the street. Seemingly not headed anywhere, nothing better to do than to just stand in a brick alley, Kunzite suspected that he finally had his mark.

Slowing down slightly, the Earth general turned into the alley, taking a handful of steps down it, past the man, as if he was cutting through to the next street. And then, he stopped, standing there with his back to the man, before finally looking over his shoulder.

"What do you want?" the man asked, finally turning his head to look at Kunzite.

"You're carrying?" Kunzite asked, eyes trained on his hands, ready to turn violent at a moment's notice if necessary.

"I don't know what you're talking about, beat it," he grunted, turning away from him.

"Oh, stop it, why _else_ would you be standing here?" Kunzite asked, turning his body around to face the man. "Unless you have a deep appreciation for the...subtlety of brick composition."

"I haven't seen you around here before," the man said slowly. "If I had, I feel like I'd remember. That's a problem for you."

"If you're implying what I think you're implying, then trust me, if that was the case, I would have already arrested you, because you've made it so damn obvious," Kunzite said harshly. "Seriously, at least have a book to read or something."

The man looked back to Kunzite.

"But anyway, it doesn't really matter, I'm not buying," Kunzite continued. "I'm selling."

"Well, I'm _not_ buying."

Kunzite nodded. "I know. You couldn't afford what I have. But maybe the man you work for can. He's who I want."

Kunzite reached into the right-hand inside portion of his overcoat, getting the low-level Imperium dealer to jump away from the wall and shuffle a couple of panicked steps away, out into the sidewalk. But, when his hand emerged holding a tiny white paper envelope, he seemed to relax a bit.

"This might be the most important thing you ever do in your life, so do it right," Kunzite instructed. "I have something for whoever it is that you answer to."

"W...What makes you think they'd be interested?" he asked, still wary and trepidatious, glancing over his shoulder.

"Oh, everyone's going to be interested in this," Kunzite answered, holding the envelope between his index and middle finger and quickly closing the gap between the two of them. The man flinched back, frozen between the gut instinct to run away and the curiosity to stick around. "Easy, easy, if I wanted to hurt you it would have been very simple for me to do it when I first came into this alley."

Presenting the paper slip to him, the dealer took it, unfurling the edge and peering down inside at a couple of little flecks of clear crystal.

"W-what the hell is this supposed to be?" he asked, closing his left eye to get a more precise look with his right one.

"Well, I think if you apply context clues, you'll be able to figure it out," Kunzite said, trying to not sound mocking despite his lack of patience.

"Oh, no, no! No way, buddy, this…" he glanced around again, then turned back to Kunzite. "Buddy, I know Imperium, this ain't...come on, what is this, glass?" He gave a small laugh. "Come on, man, you're gonna try to hawk fake product, you gotta...not even close."

"Don't take my word for it," Kunzite said, turning around and walking a couple steps away. "Check it yourself."

He blinked dully a few times, eyes then flickering from left to right. "U-uh, okay, you...you go walk down there, go down to the other street, count to twenty and come back!"

Kunzite rolled his eyes. "Why? So I don't see you pulling out the third brick over on the sixth row of the building behind you?"

He tensed up, unable to keep from looking over at the brick that Kunzite spoke of, then looking back at him. Muttering to himself, he quickly went over to the wall and pulled that brick out, exposing a small recess behind the mortar that hid a small burlap bag and a long thin steel tool. He grabbed the tool, sticking the pointy end of it into the bag and looking at the display on the other end.

The two stood there in silence, waiting, several long beats. And then, the man's eyes widened.

"Yeah," Kunzite grunted.

"U-uh…" he yanked the tool out of the envelope. "You found a way to...to trick the reader, okay, okay!" He nodded. "My...uh, the person I work for, yeah, they'd totally be interested in that!"

"No trick," Kunzite countered. "That, my friend, is the future. And whoever it is that you work for has the opportunity to be the only person in the galaxy distributing it. It's all up to whether or not you're able to successfully deliver this offer, so, I'd say you have a very important job, don't you?"

He swallowed down hard, glancing up at Kunzite, even more intimidated now.

"You take that back to your boss, run whatever tests you'd like on it to verify that it is what I say it is. If he decides he wants more, then he can meet me in the alley behind the seafood market two streets over. You know it?"

"Y-yeah."

"This exact time, tomorrow, I will be there. Only at this exact time, tomorrow. That'll be the one opportunity your boss has to acquire a libra worth of this. Just make sure he brings money for it. Four hundred thousand. Thirty-five thousand per uncia, if you'd prefer to dip in slowly." He blinked down at the man. "Do I need to repeat any of that?"

The man blinked, looking rather dull. "W-what the hell is an uncia?"

Kunzite gave a judgemental little look. "An ounce. You know what an ounce is?"

Wordlessly, the man spun around on his heel and ran off, leaving the alley and sprinting down the sidewalk, roughly shoving the tiny envelope into his pocket as he did so.

Kunzite watched him sprint off for a moment, and then glanced over to his right. With an amused sigh, he bent down and picked the loose brick up off the ground and carefully slid it back into the wall, hiding the sack behind it.

"

"So, what kinda stuff does Kunzite have you doing?" Serenity asked.

Endymion felt a little tug at his gut at this question. Slowly, he turned around, looking over at his future wife, who was seated at the large dresser a few paces to the left of the bed. She twisted her head around to look at him.

"Is it, like...you two go out in the middle of the desert, take your shirts off, and start flipping giant rubber tires over?" she asked.

"I...what?" Endymion stammered, taken aback slightly by the rather absurd suggestion.

"That's kind of what I was picturing in my head," Serenity said, reaching up to scratch at her right odango. "Or, maybe, like...you go out into the woods, and you have to fight a wolf armed with only a knife?"

Endymion relaxed a bit. The things his love was spinning in her head sounded so comical to him, that he temporarily forgot that he was in the process of lying to her.

"No, no, nothing...nothing like that," Endymion said, shaking his head and grinning. "I...I would definitely lose to the wolf, and...flipping tires? I don't...even know what that means."

"Queen Jupiter did it when she was growing up!" Serenity enthused. "You just, you get a giant tire, like the kind that you'd see on an old tractor, you...put it on it's side, and then you just start flipping it!" She stood up and bent down, miming lifting up the end of a tire, then pretending to exert great effort to turn it over. "Like that!"

Endymion sat down at the foot of his bed. "No, I...Serenity, it's, uh...I don't want to get too far into it, but, it has to do with...my preparations to be King one day."

Well, it wasn't a _total_ lie. Not that he felt much better about it.

"Haven't you basically been...preparing to be King your whole life?" Serenity asked, walking over to sit next to Endymion. "I mean, I known you pretty well for a few years now, seems like...everything is all about...learning, and understanding history, and how to execute proper protocol."

"It's...it's getting more serious now," Endymion muttered. "It's one thing to say...hey, barring an awful tragedy, this kid _will_ become King of Earth one day, and then it's another thing to be a few cycles away from turning twenty. It's just, it's more imminent now. So, I'm just...anything, anything that can be done to help me prepare, I need to do it. For all I know, I take the throne tomorrow."

"Oh, I really hope not," Serenity said, snuggling up next to the Prince. "I want a few years to get to be married to a Prince, before I'm married to a King. It's...it feels different."

"Maybe," Endymion said tersely. "My father took the throne when he was twenty-one, and...all the work he does with the agency, his passion for regulating Imperium, I mean, not that I have any inside information on it, but...I wouldn't be amazed." He shrugged.

"Amazed by what?" Serenity asked.

"If he came up to me a couple cycles after we get married, maybe after you give birth, and says...hey, son, I want to devote all my time to cracking down on smugglers, I want to move to my beach house on Mercury, the throne is all yours...I'm not going to be shocked." He grimaced. "So, I...I feel it, you know? He's forty-two, royals step down in their mid-forties all the time, and his legacy as a ruler is already unimpeachable." He hesitated for a moment. "And...I don't know, I'm a little scared of that, maybe."

"Hey, where's this coming from?" Serenity asked, rubbing her little hands up and down his right arm. "You've trained your whole life for it, nothing to be scared of."

Endymion exhaled a little breath from his nose. "I don't know, it's just...there's a saying on Earth. I don't know who came up with it, but, it goes like this." He cleared his throat. "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times." He turned to Serenity. "Does that make sense to you?"

"Uh...well, it's...it goes in circles?" Serenity questioned, squinting with thought.

Endymion nodded. "And, everyone I've ever listened to in my life...everything I've ever read, heard, whatever. Everyone says that my father is a strong man." He gestured up towards the ceiling. "And, you'd be hard pressed to argue that, under his rule, the Kingdom of Earth has seen good times, be it...the wealth, the innovations, the co-operation, everything." He sighed. "So...what does that say about me? What does it...what does it say about what I'll create?"

"Oh, you can't think like that!" Serenity insisted. "You're...you're aware of it, right? You're talking about it right now, so, what, you're going to know all of this and just...let it happen?"

Endymion blinked a few times. "You know, my father, when he was growing up, his...teenage years, he only had one guardian. And he wasn't anything like mine, he was...basically just a bodyguard." He nodded slowly. "Wartime, too. When he was fifteen, sixteen, you had insurgencies in the eastern hemisphere, Mars was trying to force us into an agreement for our water, it...it wasn't easy. I can't even imagine anything like that."

"Well, then...maybe you're more prepared to be a King than even he was," she suggested. "You've got four amazing guardians guiding your every step, that's—"

"Might be part of the problem," Endymion interrupted. "We can't know until...until it's time for me to start making tough decisions, and…" he gave a frustrated frown.

Serenity, sensing his angst, wrapped her slim arm over his shoulders, giving him several beats of silence to think.

"I just, I never want to be weak."

"You're not weak, you won't be weak," Serenity encouraged.

"I can't be weak, not ever," Endymion continued. "Whatever it takes, I can't ever be weak. I don't want to ever...appear weak to my...my people, my guardians, to...to you, most of all."

Serenity looked up at Endymion, deep into his eyes. "Endy, I'll _never_ view you as weak. You, Endy, are the reason why my Kingdom, my birthright, is going to survive past the end of the decade."

Endymion jerked his head back and forth ever so slightly, lips pursed. "I mean...my father—"

"—is not the reason why we're bringing our Kingdoms together. You are."

"I remember the one time that I thought my father was weak," Endymion said, his voice getting a little throaty and raspy. "I've...I've never said much about my mother, have I?"

Serenity pulled away from him a bit to look at him better, giving her head a shake. "I...I never felt comfortable bringing it up."

"It was...she was beautiful. Smart, too, really, very sharp...I think." A couple of sad little wrinkles set in to his face. "I don't remember very well, I was so young before it happened."

"W-what happened?" Serenity asked, leaning in a bit towards him. "I...I'm sorry, I genuinely don't know, I was never told details. Just that she...she passed when she was twenty-seven."

Endymion nodded. "A brain disease. Very nasty. Extreme dementia. Thankfully rare, but...quite incurable. When I was five, it started, and it was just...she'd forget things, say odd things at strange times, have these little muscle spasms...by the time I was six, she was lucky if she could string together three coherent words before devolving into gibberish. She started randomly attacking people around her, guards, servants...my father. Started hurting herself."

Serenity just sat in total silence, taking in every word that came from Endymion's mouth.

"I remember the last time I saw her," Endymion said in a low voice. "When I was six, my father called me, took me to this room next to his bedroom upstairs. He had taken the meditation chamber and turned it into…" he grimaced, blinking down hard. "A prison cell."

Serenity winced.

"Oh, it was very nice looking, flowers everywhere, sunlight pouring through the windows, all of that...but that's what it was. All locked up, guards everywhere, people watching her at all times, no sharp or heavy objects allowed...a prison cell." His nose wrinkled. "I remember thinking it smelled...awful. Suffocating, nauseating. Probably all the medicines they were trying. I couldn't believe someone lived in there." He blinked. "My dad took me up next to the bed, told me to...to say something to her. First time in cycles I had been able to see her."

Serenity delicately reached over to rub his shoulder.

"She was wearing this white, one-piece outfit, must have been a dozen straps keeping her bound down to the bed, very tight. Her arms crossed over her chest. They said that...if they let her arms free, she'd try to shove her hands down her throat and suffocate herself." He gingerly rubbed just above his upper lip. "When I got up on the edge of the bed, she turned and...she turned towards me. Just a little."

He reached up and grabbed at her hand on his shoulder, taking it in his.

"I...maybe she was trying to look at me, but that's not...not how I felt. She was turned towards me, but I don't feel like she was actually looking at me. When I looked into her eyes, there just wasn't anything there, just...just nothing. And she just laid there, vacantly looking towards me. And I'm positive that...even if she was looking at me." He gave a helpless little shrug. "Even if she did see me...she didn't recognize me."

Serenity nodded, blinking back some tears.

"I could have been a servant or a guard, here to pour more pills down her throat or inject relaxants into her veins. Could have been the maid, there to water the flowers. I don't think she could make that distinction. The difference between me and anyone else didn't mean anything to her anymore."

He reached over and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

"That was the one time I thought my father was weak," he said. "That day, the next few cycles after it...when I saw what was happening to my mother, I hated him so much." He continued to pull her close into his embrace. "Everyone told me growing up that...that my father was a great man. Powerful, maybe the most powerful in the galaxy. The sun rose and set by his command, the stars in the sky were put there by his whim, every way you can romanticize it. I believed it." He scowled a bit. "And then...all that power, all that wealth...and he couldn't help her. Couldn't save her mind, couldn't give her peace, couldn't comfort her. Couldn't do anything but keep her prisoner. I thought...why? Why isn't he fixing her? Making her better?" He gave a bitter little laugh. "It wasn't that he didn't want to, even at six, I knew that." He shook his head. "So, I figured, he couldn't. And I really, really believed for a while...that he was weak for it."

Serenity propped her chin up on his shoulder, looking up into his eyes with a pleading gaze, sensing the pain within him.

"It was...the worst pain you can imagine, thinking your father is weak. Thinking that your mother, the most important person in your life, is suffering and dying because your father is weak. Just, an awful anger and sadness that...consumes you. Eventually, I grew up a bit, and...well, I realized it wasn't that simple, that he did all he could, that if there was a way to save her he would have done it." He nodded. "But, for those few cycles, after she went...I didn't see him as being worth any more than anyone else in the galaxy."

He turned to look down at her, hanging off his shoulder.

"I...I don't want you to ever look at me the way I looked at my father then," he said. "Think of me as I thought of him then. So, when I become King...I have to be ready. Whatever happens, I have to be ready."

"And you will be," Serenity insisted softly. "You're going to be a fantastic King, love."


	7. Altered Ego

Chapter 07: Altered Ego

"I truly _dread_ the day that you take the throne, you know."

The Royal Venusian dining room was a cold room. Not literally, of course, the Kingdom of Venus was doing more than well enough to heat their royal palace properly, but despite the lavish decorations and trimmings, it was as if the thousands of arguments and stiff interactions between the royal family had just worn at the environment. Even inanimate decorations could only take so much nastiness before they started to wear down, so it seemed.

Princess Venus kept her eyes down on her bowl, stirring a large bowl of a gourmet soup, trying to keep her disrespect of her parents down to a subtle level. But _she_ was making it particularly hard tonight.

"You hear me?" she continued to prod, looking down the long golden dining table at her daughter. "You don't have anything to say to that?"

"It's not exactly breaking news," Venus muttered through gritted teeth, lifting a spoonful of the soup to her mouth.

"I just don't understand you, why...why are you like this?" she continued. "Do you understand, the responsibilities and the...the gravity of your birthright? Spending all this time off-world, gallivanting around, letting the whole galaxy see you, it's...where did you pick this up from?"

Venus sighed, setting her spoon down on the edge of the bowl. "A whole galaxy of things to do, and you'd have me sitting here in saunas for the rest of my life."

"We are a secretive people, daughter!" Her voice was starting to become a little shrill now. The Princess used to wince at that tone, but she was so used to it now it didn't even affect her. "We have been for dozens of generations, what makes you so special, so different, from our ancestors?"

Venus cleared her throat. "Well, mother... _you_ are a secretive person. Your mother was a secretive person, and her mother, and her mother before her. And I am not."

"You turning eighteen was _not_ supposed to be an open invitation to...to just go wherever you wanted all the time!" she added. "Your home is here! You belong here! Not to mention some of the things you do when you're not here, I...daughter, I have _no_ understanding of why you waste your time with the Moon Princess."

"I like her," Princess Venus answered quietly. "Nothing else to say. She's nice, kind, fun to be around."

She wanted to use the opportunity to throw a barb at her mother, but resisted the urge.

"There's nothing in it for us," the Queen of Venus said, clanging her fork against her golden dinner plate. The Princess finally glanced over to see her practically attack a collection of broccoli with a series of violent stabs. "That Kingdom is practically worthless now, there's no point in making an ally of her." She rolled her eyes.

"She's marrying the Prince of Earth, if you haven't heard the news," Venus grumbled. "That's not nothing."

"Oh, yes, practically...crawling on her hands and knees, rattling a little cup out, looking for charity." She clapped her hands together underneath her chin. "Oh, oh please, mighty Earth Prince, please, save my worthless world! I'll let you lead me around on a leash everywhere we go, if only you'll toss a couple coins my way!"

"It's not like that." Princess Venus tried to be patient, as she knew she was obligated to give her mother some respect, but it was getting harder with each moment. She glanced over briefly at her father, the King, who just sat there meekly, uninterested in taking a side or standing up for anyone. She wondered who she disliked more. At least _she_ had a spine.

"I'll tell you this. If it came to it. I'd sooner burn this entire planet to the ground and toss myself from the top of the Pioneer Tower than beg someone to bail us out." The Queen nodded. "Oh yes, I'd have this entire planet smashed into space dust first. What kind of a...a royal supplicates themselves like that?!"

"Well, given the state of things, it seems...entirely possible that I might yet live to see this entire planet on fire," Venus said bitterly, glancing over at her mother.

"Oh, uh...no," the King finally spoke up. "It's...it's not that bad." He shook his head. "Really, you...you shouldn't say such things." As quickly as he had made himself heard, he grabbed a goblet in front of him and took a drink from it, trying to extricate himself from the conversation.

"Oh, and leaving the planet is one thing, but so help me, if you were to tell _anyone_ about our financial situation, I'll have you locked in the dungeons," the Queen spat. "And if you think I'm joking, just try it."

"Oh...believe me, I don't think you're joking," the Princess replied dryly, beginning to violently stir her soup in front of her.

"I still can't believe you...you actually gave away one of Sita's knives. For, for nothing!" Her face wrinkled, Venus glancing over to catch a peek at her distorted face before taking another spoonful of soup. "You just gave it to her, to a girl with...with nothing but a broken Kingdom to her name!"

"They are my knives, mother," Venus replied warningly. "My knives, to do with as I wish, and I gave one of the dozen that I have to my close friend on what was a very special day for her."

"Why do I have the bad feeling that...that whenever you take the throne, you'll just start giving away all the crown jewels on random whims?" she continued to berate. "That knife was an important part of Venus history. It belongs here. And if that's how you treat them, then perhaps they _shouldn't_ be yours."

"I have eleven more just like it," Venus hissed, barely holding on to restraint now. "I think we'll be alright."

"Oh...you just don't get it," the Queen lamented. "You'll never get it. You don't _want_ to get it." She shook her head. "Sometimes, I...I wish we had decided to have another child—"

Finally, the Princess stood up from the table, extending up to her full height. "You know, it's _comical_ that you treat me like this when I'm here and then actually wonder why I like to spend so much time off-planet!" she snapped. With that, she stormed off, turning down and stomping over towards a hallway behind her. As she disappeared into the hall, she put her right wrist up to her mouth. "Prepare my shuttle!" she grunted.

"

It had been a long day for Kunzite, staking out and keeping an eye on an entire alleyway. Thankfully, this part of Latium was rather light on authorities, as if they had resigned to giving it up to the undesirables, letting them roam free so long as they stayed out of the nicer places in the world. So nobody was around to find it suspicious that a man was hanging around behind a fish market for an entire day.

He may have never tried to sell Imperium before, but Kunzite understood enough about the nature of shady black market deals to know that his proposed meeting place had to be protected. Fortunately, nobody had come through to set up traps or do anything that might interfere with his deal, although he had little doubt that a few of the hundreds of people he had seen go through the area were scoping it out. Ultimately, he could only control what he could control, and there was just plain going to have to be some risk involved in selling Imperium to Imperium dealers. Well, if anyone was equipped to handle such a situation, surely it was him.

Still wearing his rather embarrassing outfit from the day before, the Earth general stood at the east end of the alley, throwing his gaze over his shoulder every now and then but otherwise focused entirely on the space in front of him. A stretch of bland concrete and brick, maybe a hundred paces in length, just a way to cut across streets a little faster and not much else. Just deserted enough to be a good place for an exchange of illicit goods, but just public enough to make things unlikely to go sour.

And then, he thought he saw it. Three men wearing gray outfits, two of them wearing bland hats, walking down the alley from the other side. One of them, the one on the left, had a large sack slung over his shoulder. Kunzite felt the small plasma launcher tucked underneath his overcoat, capable of being whipped out and fired in the time it took to blink. He hoped he wouldn't have the opportunity to use it.

Slowly, he began walking down the concrete path, constantly aware of everything happening around him, as much as there wasn't really anything happening on either side of him. He tried to ignore the fact that he was outnumbered, and instead focus on the fact that he had spent the last day preparing for this.

And then, the collection of people met up near the middle of the alley. All three of Kunzite's prospective partners were quite large, and to most men would have seemed intimidating, but Kunzite had at least half a head on all of them.

"So. You're the man with the magic mix?" the one on the right asked, holding his hand out towards Kunzite, palm out towards him. "That's far enough."

"Which one of you is the man in charge?" Kunzite asked, looking the three over cautiously. The one in the middle seemed to be a bit older than the others, which instinctively made him guess that he might be the head of the outfit.

The one in the middle picked his head up a bit. "Of the three of us, it's me. I've been given authority to approve or deny this transaction. So, why don't we get to that part?"

"As long as you've got your end covered," Kunzite said, looking over at the large sack the man on the left had over his shoulder. "Give me a look."

The man swung his arm down, letting the bag fall to the concrete ground, and then bent down to undo the thick threads that tied it closed.

"Where'd you find this shit, anyway?" the man in the middle asked, eyes darting down to watch his lackey open the sack up.

"That information would cost you a lot more than what's in that sack," Kunzite said simply, watching as the inside of the bag was exposed. Full of rolls of paper currency, a hugely significant representation of wealth. Creds, accepted everywhere in the galaxy with no headaches or reservations, one of the many amazing innovations of King Kasios's reign and a sign of the co-operation the galaxy had been partaking in recently.

"Four hundred thousand for the whole thing," the man said. "Like you said. We want it all."

"Sounds good to me," Kunzite said. "And I'm open to continuing our partnership going forward."

"Depends on how this goes," he said simply, as Kunzite went over to the wall to his left, kneeling down by a couple of large cinder blocks at the base of the wall and carefully pulling them out and apart, exposing a small gap in the construction. He reached in, pulling out a small parcel wrapped tightly in a thick brown paper.

Kunzite stood back up, holding the package in his right hand as his left hand quickly unfolded the edge, opening it up enough to allow the three gentlemen a few paces from him to see inside. Twelve perfectly symmetrical cubes resembling glass were within.

"Toss one of them over," the man on the right instructed, pulling a reader out from his right-hand pocket. Kunzite walked back over in front of the three men, reaching into the opened package and pulling one of the uncias out. He gently tossed it over to the man, who immediately stuck the tip of the reader into it and waited.

After a few beats, he looked over to his right and nodded.

"Alright, you've got a deal." The middle man bent down to pick up the sack of money, taking a few steps forward towards Kunzite with it, right hand out towards him, reaching towards the package. "Alright, let's do it."

Kunzite glanced down towards the large collection of cred bills. "Actually, I—"

His insistence of being allowed to check the money for its authenticity was cut off as, perhaps a beat too late, he noticed the large ring on the man's right hand. Excessive, oversized, not at all fitting with the rest of his dirty outfit...suspicious. Highly suspicious. A beat earlier, and he would have been able to do something with that knowledge. But the man already had his hand on the package of Imperium, the large central piece of the ring pointed right at his chest.

Kunzite was ejected halfway down the alley, a loud boom and a massive concussive blast spewing from the ring and right into the Earth general's ribcage. All the air was sucked from his lungs as he was launched through the air, feeling as if he had just gotten hit by a freighter ship mid-jump. He could feel multiple ribs fracturing in his chest. And then, he hit the ground, haphazardly rolling across it, limbs askew as he tumbled back near the sidewalk.

Through the significant pain, Kunzite had enough of his mental faculties working to feel very stupid, not catching onto the ruse in time to actually counter it. He had relaxed too much, not done enough to secure the transaction, let them control too much of the exchange! As a guardian of the Prince of Earth, he should know much better than that. What was wrong with him, letting a few Imperium smugglers get the jump on him like this?! He'd have to find a way to refocus his mind, this sort of lapse was unacceptable.

And then, he was back in the moment, momentum from the concussive wave finally halting, as he crumbled into a heap a few paces short of the sidewalk. He could hear the buzz of people behind him, as the blast had made quite a loud sound and attracted much attention. He looked up, seeing the three men sprinting away, now in possession of both the sack of money and the Imperium. He wasn't going to catch them. Not even he could overcome that big of a lead, not with broken ribs. He mentally let go of the exchange having gone bad, pushing it from his mind, so he could focus on the task at hand. He had to get out of here before the authorities showed up, he had to get back to the Earth palace, and he had to come up with some excuse for his injuries. Turning around, looking at a small gathering crowd, he quickly stepped forward and pushed his way through roughly, lies already being spun in his head as he made to disappear.

"

"Well, I'm sure if you were going to be beheaded, it would have happened by now," Maria said, sweeping the large whirring brush underneath the bed, using the long rod it was attached to in order to get everywhere along the polished tile.

"I'm just...I'm so embarrassed, _that's_ my first ever interaction with the Prince?" Julia angsted, standing up on a stepladder and putting up a new set of curtains around the bed. "I was so...excited when I got this detail, and...first time I actually get to speak to him, I'm begging for my life?"

"Julia!" Maria said emphatically from down on the floor. "I'm pretty sure you were, at no point, begging for your life! Calm down! The Prince isn't like that, and...he's getting married in a few cycles anyway, you think he cares about something like that right now?"

Julia sighed, finishing putting up the velvet curtain and stepping down to move to the other side of the bed. "Yes, I...okay." She grimaced as she moved the stepladder over. "Breaks my heart, though."

"What?" Maria popped her head up to look over at her fellow palace maid. "Him getting married?"

Julia had a bit of a forlorn smile on her face as she began to unfold the brand new curtain, preparing to put it up.

"Oh, oh, don't tell me!" Maria said, unable to resist grinning up at her. "You weren't actually—"

"Well!" Julia countered defensively. "I mean, it...I thought, maybe that...if I actually got assigned to tend to his bedroom, we might run into each other a few times, and...who knows what can happen?" She shrugged, frantically putting the curtain up. "You know...stranger things have happened!"

"I'm not sure that's true," Maria said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, what girl _hasn't_ had themselves a little fantasy about Prince Endymion, but...you weren't getting your hopes up, were you?"

"How can I not?!" she protested, stringing the thick curtain up along the top of the bed. "I mean, Gods! That...that voice, and that smile!"

"Hey, you're preaching to the choir," Maria said, pulling the brush out from underneath the bed and standing up, watching Julia finish her work.

"I mean, he may as well have been constructed in a lab!" Julia continued to gush. "That...that nose—"

"Why, thank you."

Julia froze, hands caught in midair as she watched the bedroom door swing open. Endymion entered the room, holding Serenity bridal-style in his arms, carrying her across the threshold. Her eyes went as wide as dinner saucers.

"For the record, your friend is correct, we're a civilized people and we don't behead people over minor infractions," Endymion said, revealing how long he had been eavesdropping on the maid's conversations. "And thank you, I like my nose too. It's at least my fourth-best feature."

Julia was frozen atop the small stepladder, looking even more terrified than she had been a few days before in the presence of the Prince.

Endymion went over to the bed, gently setting Serenity down on it, who looked decidedly less amused with Julia's little daydream. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking quite grumpy.

"Alright, you done?" Endymion asked, snapping Julia out of her haze and getting her to look up at the curtain before nodding. "Oookay, let's go, then," he said, bending down slightly to give the maid a light little tap on the backs of her legs. With a whimper, Julia jumped down off the ladder, picked it up in her right hand, lifted it up over her shoulder, and sprinted over towards the door.

"I like the curtains, by the way!" Endymion called out at her retreating back as she bolted from the room. Endymion turned to look at the other maid. "You should tell her to lighten up," he said nonchalantly. "It's bad for your health to be scared for your life all the time."

"Yes, Your Highness," Maria said quickly, bowing before following her friend out the door, leaving the soon-to-be royal couple alone.

"I'm not so sure I like your nose," Serenity said jokingly, looking over at Endymion. "It's pointy."

Endymion turned to Serenity. She still carried a slightly-miffed expression. "Oh, don't tell me you're mad at her." He pointed over his shoulder at the door behind him. "Come on, let a girl dream."

"I'll have her thrown in the dungeons first thing tomorrow morning," Serenity said with a playful little grin, scooting over to the edge of the bed and standing up. "Unless you were to...make me forget all about it tonight."

"That can be arranged," Endymion replied, sitting down up near the head of the bed as Serenity made a beeline for the bathing chamber in the adjacent room.

After watching Serenity disappear into the side room, Endymion looked up at the end table by the head of the bed. A small, circular holo-projector was blinking a gentle blue light, prompting him to pick it up in his right palm.

Humming a little tune, he tapped a tiny button along the lip. A holographic projection of an audio wavelength popped up from his hand, floating a little in the air. It began to expand and jitter about as a voice emitted from the little projector.

"Your Highness, just passing along a message from the medical staff. Uh, Kunzite's going to be out of commission for a few days."

Endymion's smile disappeared from his lips, blinking rapidly as he listened to the message.

"Nothing serious, he's totally fine...had a little training accident, fractured some ribs. Don't worry about it, we got him, four or five days at most he'll be fine, just...letting you know."

Endymion's head unconsciously recoiled a bit, mouth opening slightly in shock and confusion as he took the message in.

"Uh, if you...if you wanna see him, he's in his room, resting." The projector shut off, leaving Endymion staring at the air right above his open palm.

Giving his head a little shake, he stood up, haphazardly tossing the projector down to the table. "U-uh, sweetie! I, uh, I've gotta run, be back as soon as I can!"

Without waiting for a reply, Endymion booted it out the door, dashing into the hallway, almost skidding as he swung around the corner and ran off.

"Huh?"

Serenity cracked the washroom door open slightly, peering her head out into the suddenly vacated room, looking around.

"E...Endy?"

"

The electronic door to Kunzite's personal room slid open, allowing Endymion to see exactly what he was dreading. The Crown Prince winced on laying eyes on his most trusted guardian, laying upright on the tight, compact bed. Quickly, he entered the room.

It was hard to imagine a more bland room than Kunzite's personal chambers. The man spent practically no time in there other than to sleep, and as such he had done remarkably little with it. Endymion could have easily mistaken it for a prison cell, with it's plain makeup, little more than a bed, a couple of tables, a desk against the far wall, a stool, and a wooden shelf. He often felt bad for his general, living in such a basic room in what was otherwise an opulent palace, but he could never get him to show any interest in making anything else. Right now, Endymion wasn't even thinking about the dull room. He was thinking about his guardian, sitting there, shirt off and a giant brace around his upper torso.

"Oh, no, I'm…" Endymion grimaced, going over to Kunzite's bedside, worry etched onto his face. "Kunzite, I'm so, so sorry, I—"

Kunzite put his right palm out towards the Prince. "Your Highness, it's fine, really, stop apologizing, please."

"No, no, I…" he shook his head, looking down at the large protective shell that was guarding Kunzite's rib cage as it healed. "Kunzite, I...look at this!"

"It's nothing," Kunzite insisted. "Minor injury compared to the ones I had during my training, I heal much faster than most humans, I'll be fine in a few days, w-wipe that look off your face."

Endymion scoffed, looking around the little room. "How many?"

"Three," Kunzite answered, trying to smile to put his charge at ease. "Don't worry, it's my job."

Endymion pulled a little stool over towards the bed, sitting down on it after getting it up close to the edge. "What happened, buddy?"

Kunzite hesitated, reaching over to a small table by his bed to grab a black remote. He tapped a button on it, causing a dull thud to sound off from the door, locking it securely.

"I was stupid, careless, let them...let them get the jump on me," Kunzite muttered. "Completely my fault, I...I can't believe I let that happen."

"You mean the Imperium dealers?" Endymion asked.

Kunzite nodded. "I'm the one who's sorry, Your Majesty, I...when I'm healed, I give my word I'll be refocused, things like this can't happen. I'm just thankful you weren't there."

Endymion ran his fingers through his hair. "I put you out there by yourself, I...I'm sorry." He gestured at the brace. "No, this...this is me, buddy." He rubbed his forehead, hunched over on the stool. "I...I don't even—"

"For the last time, it's perfectly fine," Kunzite said, doing his very best to sound comforting. "Endymion, think of it like...my role in life, the reason why I'm here, is to have things like this happen to me, so they don't have to happen to you." He pointed down at the brace. "This, this happens to me, I break a few ribs...but if the same thing had happened to you." He gestured at Endymion. "What would happen to you? Shattered rib cage? Broken legs?" He nodded. " _That's_ what matters. I'm happy to take on a little pain if it means protecting you."

"Kunzite, that...that doesn't make it okay for me to...I put you in that position." He shook his head, face wrinkled with regret. "That's not...I shouldn't be doing that." He leaned forward towards Kunzite. " _I'm_ sorry, I'm the sorry one." He pointed at the brace. "This, I...I'm not gonna let this happen to you again." He puffed out his cheeks. "If...if there was an assassin who took a shot at me and you...and you took the blow for me, that's one thing, but…but this...this is something else."

"It doesn't matter, Your Highness, I'm fine. Just be grateful that it was me taking this, and not you, that's the only thing I care about." He nodded. "It was actually a...very cool little weapon they had, I don't know how it works without...ripping the wearer's arm clean off—"

"I'm sorry," Endymion insisted. "I don't care if you don't want me to be sorry, I _am_ sorry. This is on me."

"Alright, just...just forget all of it, okay? Soon as I'm back on my feet, I'll clean all this up, and we'll...we'll discuss our next moves."

Endymion nodded. "R-right."

"Look, Your Highness, it...it wasn't a bad idea, but...maybe we should take this as a sign," Kunzite suggested. "At this point...I could clean all this up, make it like none of this ever happened, and that'd be the end of it, we...maybe we should just do that."

"B-but what about the people who did this to you?" Endymion asked, gesturing at the wound on Kunzite's chest. "Don't you—"

Kunzite's face wrinkled a bit. "In a couple cycles, they'll probably be in a prison cell, or worse. They're street level Imperium dealers, if you're talking about revenge, all we have to do is wait a little bit."

Endymion tilted his head a bit, regarding these comments carefully.

"We'll talk about it more when I'm up," Kunzite said. "For now, just...stay out of trouble, Nephrite'll be there to protect you if push comes to shove, can't imagine why it would...and forget all of this for now."

Endymion stood up. "Alright...feel better, huh? I'll make this up to you."

Kunzite scoffed. "No, no, it's...it's my job. Just...look, we tried. And I'm not saying it wasn't worth a try, or that it was a bad idea, but...we both live in a palace." He shrugged. "Maybe...maybe black market Imperium smuggling just isn't for us."

"

Endymion slowly walked over the threshold into his bedroom, moving much more deliberately than he had when he had left. Immediately, Serenity looked over from her position sitting up on the bed, legs folded underneath her.

"Where'd you run off to?" Serenity asked. "Disappearing like that, I...what was that about?"

Endymion was silent, vacantly looking around his room, mouth closed and chin wrinkled as he held his jaw together tightly. It almost looked as if he had never been in the room before, and was examining it for the first time ever.

"Endy?" Serenity prompted, snapping him out of his daze.

"O-oh, uh...I'm sorry," he said with a quick smile that faded. "Kunzite got hurt, he...he broke some ribs."

Immediately, the mild irritation melted off of Serenity's face, to be replaced by surprise and concern. "Oh, no!" She kicked up into a standing position. "H-how bad is it?"

"Uh, thankfully...he'll be fine," he said. "Training accident, you know how intense he can get."

Serenity nodded. "I'm sorry, I...well, at least he'll be okay."

"I just had to go see for...for myself," Endymion mumbled, glancing back at the bedroom door. "Give him a few days, he'll be a hundred percent. Nothing to it. But I needed to...I wouldn't feel right until I actually saw him."

Serenity sat back down on the edge of the bed, easing up slightly. "I understand."

The two just hung in an awkward silence for a few moments, Endymion looking around his room, Serenity watching him.

"Uh, I'm...I'm going to pick out an outfit for, uh...a meeting," Endymion said, pointing over at his walk-in closet across the room.

"Who are we meeting?" Serenity asked.

"N-not...not necessarily you, uh...some officials from Saturn are flying in sometime this cycle, trying to get us to...to involve ourselves in the civil war happening over there." Endymion began shuffling over towards the closet. "I want to...figure out what I want to wear."

"Do you want my help?" Serenity asked, brightening up a bit. "I'd love to help you pick out clothes! And...I mean, you'll...have to be taking your clothes off a lot to try things on, I wouldn't want to miss that," she added suggestively.

"Uh, no, this...it's a question of diplomacy and style, and...very boring, trust me," Endymion said, going over to the closet. "Go get a massage, maybe."

"Oooh," Serenity said, getting back to her feet. "I like the way you think."

Endymion backed into the closet, shutting the door firmly behind him. "Love you!" he called out loudly. He silently slid a bolt along the top of the door down, locking it, before turning around and looking around the room.

Rows upon rows of set outfits, each one perfectly splayed out on a little metal rack, stood at attention before the Crown Prince. All the walls were made of perfectly reflective mirrors, guaranteeing the ability to view oneself no matter where you stood. Blinking a few times, Endymion began to stroll down the first row, eyes trained on each set of clothing as he past it.

You could have easily clothed a village with Endymion's collection of outfits, so long as the village was populated entirely by moderately tall, thin males. Some of them he had only ever worn once or twice, being kept for a very special occasion that may or may not ever occur again. As he strolled down the row, he could recall each one and it's supposed use. A garish purple suit for the Opera, elaborate silk robes done in the tradition of the Kojiki faith for diplomatic trips to Mars, a lightly-armored dinner jacket set for when you were concerned a high-class event might devolve into a fight, a diamond-studded undershirt and jacket combo for ceremonies on Mercury…

It took some time for him to find something that caught his attention. He stopped in front of a jet black jacket and pants combination with a white shirt underneath, the simple garb completed with a black necktie right above the collar. Three buttons on the jacket, three more on the undershirt. A pair of white gloves hanging out from the front pocket. And a black cape hanging from the shoulders.

A bit of fashion that had originated from the western hemisphere maybe two hundred years ago, often referred to as a tuxedo. He lifted the jacket and shirt off the rack, looking it over, examining it.

Nodding to himself, he hung it back up, then looked over at the far side of the room. Rows and rows of shelves over there. Quickly, he swept over towards it, immediately navigating between the first two rows, hand up to his chin as he looked for something.

Accessories. As many as you could ever want. Cufflinks, belts, bracelets, scabbards, whatever you needed to spice up your outfit you could find here. The Prince wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, but surely it had to be somewhere here. If it wasn't here, then it didn't exist.

After passing over a collection of earrings, he found his attention being taken by a hat. A large, tall hat, black with a flat top and a broad brim, propped up on the top level of one of the shelves. Another fashion development from a couple hundred years ago in the western hemisphere, if he recalled correctly. A top hat. He picked it up, looking it over, although his attention was snatched away when he realized that the hat had been covering up another object on the shelf.

A roughly oval-shaped strip of white hardened cloth, two symmetrical holes cut out near the middle, the cloth slightly curved in a few spots. A thick piece of string was tied to either side, threaded through two holes on the edges. He picked it up.

A few years ago, the Earth Palace had thrown a masquerade party, complete with a ballroom dance. He remembered it vividly, an especially fun and amusing night, as neither Kunzite or Nephrite seemed to particularly care to be forced to wear the decorative masks, but had no choice in the matter. And, of course, Serenity had loved every second of it, and he loved that she had loved it. This had been his mask.

Looking the simple, almost cheap mask over, he thought about it for a few moments, then nodded once again.

"

Tugging at the wrist of his right-hand glove, pulling it taut on his hand, Endymion looked into the wall mirror closest to him.

It still fit perfectly, as it hadn't been that long ago he had been measured for it. The vast majority of the outfit was black, which he thought gave himself a look of professionalism, as well as a touch of intimidation. The white of the undershirt, mask and gloves perfectly complemented everything else. The combination of the hat and the mask covered up a good portion of his face. The cape waved every so slightly behind him, reacting to every little movement he made.

He stared at himself in the mirror for several beats, tilting his head back and forth, carefully regarding everything about his appearance.

Satisfied, he began to pull his gloves off.

"

The private classroom where Endymion had been educated by a slew of elite scholars remained well-stocked, as the Prince had only concluded his official education a year ago and it was important that he had access to whatever educational accoutrements he needed, in the event that he wished to advance himself in any one particular field to a further degree. He was grateful for that, in this moment, as he pulled a series of glass jars down from a metal shelf in the back row of a large storage room, placing them into a small green basket.

Satisfied, he turned away from the large collection of chemicals and powders, slowly walking out of the storage room, back out into the square chamber that he had been given countless education lectures in. On a long desk against the east wall, he had already set up a large collection of glassware, with a couple of little burners on the left side.

Endymion set the basket of materials down on the left corner of the table, and then reached forward to twist a little black knob at the base of one of the burners. A small flame jumped up from the nozzle in the middle of it, dancing up into the air.

"

"Dude, once you ride in something that doesn't have wheels...like, even _once,_ you'll never be able to go back to wheeled vehicles," Flavio said, bending down a bit to take a bite out of a bundle of meat wrapped in a thin sheet of bread. "Honestly, you might not even wanna do it, it'll ruin all your other trips for you. Believe me, it kills me having to commute around in that shitty four-wheeler after trying that transport over in the capital city."

"I think I'll manage," Otho replied from the other side of the small round table. The two street level Imperium slingers were having a late breakfast, sitting in an outdoor seating area just next to a meat cart, a popular dining location in Latium. At this particular moment, it wasn't especially busy, as it was past peak breakfast time and before peak lunch time. Still quite public and visible, but not packed. "Besides, with the money I'm making, maybe I'll end up buying an anti-gravity transport soon."

"Oh, stop that," Flavio chided, waving him off. "You don't wanna do that, you're not making _that_ much yet—"

The rest of his sentence never got out, as his focus was absorbed by a most curious sight. A man had come up next to their little table, stopping just a step before it, standing there. Flavio blinked a few times, wondering if he was somehow seeing things, but Otho also turning to regard the odd man confirmed that what he saw was actually there.

The man was dressed far too well for being in such a low-class environment, a mostly-black outfit that belonged at a grade ten restaurant or a fancy merchant party. The large, flat-topped hat atop his head was almost enough to make him look comical, but it was the basic mask covering his eyes and the cape over his shoulders that made him especially hard to take seriously.

Finally, after several beats, Flavio adjusted himself slightly in his seat. "Hey, buddy, there's no kid's birthday party here, you're in the wrong place, get out of here."

Wordlessly, the well-dressed man placed his right hand down flat on the table, getting both men to flinch back a bit. But, just as quickly, he lifted his hand back up, revealing that he had just set a tiny paper envelope down on the table. The two men looked down at it.

"You want the rest, you get me a meeting with the man in charge," he instructed, voice slightly gruff and gravelly. "And I mean in charge."

With that, he silently turned around, walking away from the two. After a couple beats, Otho reached across the table, carefully grabbing the envelope in his fat fingers and pulling it over.

"Careful, that guy...clearly not all there," Flavio warned. "Might have his own...piss in there or something."

Otho, however, on opening the edge and peering inside, had a reaction that was decidedly not one of disgust. "Uh…"

He looked over his shoulder, looking for the strangely-dressed man, twisting his head about before finding him, having taken a seat across the plaza, at an empty table. He seemed oblivious to the odd looks he was getting from everyone who walked by him, just sitting there, gaze transfixed on the two men he had just presented his little gift to.

"We're, uh...we're gonna wanna take this in," Otho said nervously, standing up. "Come on, finish eating, let's go!"

"

The small brownstone building had been subject to the ravages of time and neglect, no different from any other building in this part of the town. The two-story complex looked quite sturdy, but otherwise the structure was a rather sad and depressing sight. Paint chipped, stones missing from the walls, and windows dirty and curtained off. It looked like a building that might serve as a den for an Imperium kingpin.

Two large men in black uniforms were milling around right outside, no doubt guarding the location. In a nicer city it would have been suspicious. Here, you just didn't want to stare too long at them, lest you become a target.

Endymion, still wearing his 'disguise', had been escorted to the building by the pair of Imperium dealers, a silent trek through city streets. It would seem that Endymion's little taste of Imperium had earned him enough respect from the pair, as they refrained from making further cracks about his clothes. He held a small paper package in his right hand, the ticket by which he would be granted admission to meet whoever called the shots in this particular racket of Imperium smugglers.

He was guided through the front doors of the building, large and green made of thick steel. He heard it locking behind him. His insides were doing flips as he was trapped inside, glancing around to find at least a dozen men milling about on mismatched couches and chairs, watching handball on a holographic projector in the northeast corner of the first floor. Any one of those men were bigger and likely stronger than him, despite Endymion's training courtesy of his guardians.

He just prayed his terror wasn't being displayed outwardly.

They led him into a side room over to the right of the entrance. To his surprise, sitting behind a wooden desk, was the least imposing individual he had seen thus far. In fact, the individual behind this desk didn't look like she belonged at all.

Yes, she. A woman was sitting there, bright orange hair falling just short of her shoulders, wearing a red jacket and blue scarf. She was...honestly, rather attractive, curves quite eye-catching and face pleasant to view. For a moment, Endymion wondered if this was a joke. But, he had to admit, the two large men flanking her were rather convincing.

He slowly walked over to the desk, feeling a handful more large men behind him, watching his every move. Even though they had not drawn weapons, he could almost feel the barrels of their plasma blasters on his back. One wrong move, and he'd be filled with holes before he could turn around. Or maybe just _wish_ they had killed him.

What in the hell was he doing?

He set the package down on the desk in front of the woman, who immediately reached forward to open it up. She peeled the paper back to expose the libra of refined Imperium.

"Well, I could hardly believe there was so much as a scrap of Imperium like this in the entire universe, much less a full libra," she said, voice slightly shrill and abrasive. "But, now there's even more...I have to ask." She looked up at Endymion. "How much of this stuff do you have?"

Endymion was silent at this question, standing there, trying to look intimidating. He had no way of knowing if it was working. Probably not.

"What's with the tuxedo?" she asked, pointing at Endymion's jacket.

Endymion thought for a moment, trying to feel how close the people behind him were. He had to execute this perfectly. He took a brief glance down at the desk, finding a potted plant to the woman's immediate right that he thought might suit his needs.

"I like to dress up," Endymion replied, battling the tumultuous battle inside his gut that was enough to make him want to puke.

She nodded, giving an amused grin. "What's with the mask?"

"...facial scars," he answered. He just had to focus on following the plan. If he could just stick to the script, he might have a chance. He had thought of everything, he just needed—

"What's your name?"

Shit.

He hoped that his sudden shock at the question didn't register on his face, his mind frantically scrolling through various names that he could use. Every one that popped up in his panicked mind was quickly spat out as being a name from someone close to him, possibly implicating him. He needed a name, something that wouldn't link him to the palace, something...something…

"Hey? Name?" she insisted.

"...Tuxedo Mask," Endymion managed to blurt out.

An extended silence, Endymion mentally kicking himself throughout its duration. How could he forget to come up with a fake name?!

"Excuse me?" she demanded. "What was that?"

"Tuxedo Mask," Endymion doubled down, figuring that he was stuck with it.

She gave a little laugh. He was sure he heard a couple from behind him as well. "No, seriously, cut the...cut the shit, what's your name?"

"I just gave it to you," he insisted.

"Alright, fine...Tuxedo Mask," she said, giving him a curious look before standing up. "I'm Mimete. I run the Imperium black market around here. And not even a day ago, I had a man come to me with a batch of product. Looked very, very similar to what you've brought me today." She pursed her lips together. "You know, I'm not saying coincidences don't happen, I just...don't really believe in them."

"Right. Well, that was my partner. And I'm here because I'm not entirely happy with how that transaction ended," he said, voice low and even.

Mimete laughed, head kicking back slightly as she gave an obnoxious cackle. "Oh, not entirely happy?" she repeated. "You don't say?"

"So, here's my proposal," Endymion continued. "One million, one hundred thousand creds. In bills."

"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed, still obviously amused by this interaction. "Wow, I...I knew you weren't completely right upstairs, but...man!" She laughed again. "One point one million, how do you...how do you figure?"

"Four hundred for what you stole from my partner. Four hundred for what I've brought to you today. And I'll say, a hundred thousand for each of his ribs that you broke. And we'll let this go."

He could hear uproarious laughter getting kicked up behind him. He tried to not let it bother him. His focused remained on Mimete, in front of him, as she similarly laughed his request off.

"Oh, boy, boy, BOY!" she shouted. "You...you're something else!" She wagged her finger over at the Prince in disguise. "Where the hell did you come from?! Gods, I've seen some nutters in my time, but...wow!" She blinked a few times. "Three broken ribs? That's it?" She gave a little shrug. "Your boy is tough, then. That would have killed most men."

Slowly, with a subtle move of his right leg that could barely be detected, he scraped the bottom of his shoe along the floor, dislodging something stuck underneath it.

"Either way, I mean, after what we did to your friend, I...buddy, not that I'm complaining, but, you _really_ should have gotten our message yesterday. Take the loss and move on." She pointed up over Endymion's shoulder. "Alright, my associates here are gonna have some questions for you about your source of product. We can do this the easy way, but personally, I prefer the hard way."

Endymion raised his hand up towards Mimete, palm out. "Oh no no, you...you misunderstand."

She squinted over at him, tilting her head a bit. "How do you figure...Tuxedo Mask?"

"We...we got your message, loud and clear," Endymion explained, sweating buckets underneath his tuxedo as he felt the men behind him were mere paces away. "It's just...you ran off so fast, you didn't get a chance to hear our reply."

His felt the tiny little object underneath his shoe, beginning to apply pressure down onto it, pressing his weight onto it.

"So...Mimete. If. I. May."

He heard the little crack as the object beneath his shoe broke. A tiny little capsule, cracking open like an egg and releasing a splash of a white liquid. He quickly stuck his heel into the tiny puddle, just as Mimete's eyes dropped down towards where the sound had come from. He felt a slight bubbling under his foot, as the powder on his heel reacted with the liquid he had just released.

Mimete opened her mouth. Probably to order her underlings to grab Endymion. Whatever it was, it never got said.

"

The uneventful, dull day was suddenly interrupted by a horrific, inexplicable, violent burst of sound. A loud screech, ear-splitting, blasted in all directions from a poor-condition brownstone, the piercing sound so deafening and unpleasant it was practically a visible pulse. Everyone within three dolichos would hear it, everyone within a single dolicho would get a migraine from it. And to those on the same street? Well, you'd be in dire need of an appointment with a scientist who specialized in ear treatments.

Everything made of glass on the block was shattered into millions of pieces, the unholy screech practically vaporizing it all into dust. In nearby buildings, people were sent flying to the floor, hands over their ears, desperately trying to protect their sensitive eardrums from any further assaults. At ground zero, it was so deafening, you couldn't have been blamed for fearing that it might just destroy the entire building.

And then, as quickly as it had come into the world, it left. As far as almost everyone who heard it would ever know, it was an inexplicable act of the Gods. There was plenty of evidence that it had happened, broken glassware and damaged eardrums, but there would never be any sort of explanation for it.

"

Endymion had to act quickly. Everyone in the room, and he knew in the rest of the building, would be disoriented for several beats. For his part, the genius scientific minds on Mercury had spared him any actual harm. Two little blue beads in his ears, in normal circumstances hardly even visible, would fill to expand his entire ear canal when they detected high-decibel sounds, covering the entire eardrum in a thick cushion of protection. Hardly any of the horrific screech had gotten it's way through, and as soon as the noise had passed, the beads contracted again into tiny little specks. A spectacular little invention.

He grabbed the potted plant on the desk, taking the quickest of glances down at Mimete, who had fallen to her knees and was clutching at her ears, slowly shaking her head, giving off little moans of pain. He dumped the plant and dirt out of the pot onto the floor, and then reached down to his belt buckle. He ripped a large tablet off of the back of the buckle, crushing it between his right thumb and index finger and letting it fall into the bottom of the container.

Then, spinning around and backing against the left wall of the room, away from everyone else, he began to dance his fingers along the buttons running down his tuxedo jacket, stopping on each one to pull a tiny little ball of what looked like a white chalk from each one. Soon, he had half-a-dozen of the pebble-sized balls in his hand. He held them over the pot, which now had a coating of the foamy white liquid along the bottom of it.

"Ohhhhh...ahhhhh..." Mimete finally got to her feet, hands still up on her head, squeezing her eyes shut tightly in pain. "Oh...oh, what in the…" Both of her ears were bleeding profusely, little streams of blood pouring down the sides of her face. "Holy...holy…"

Endymion glanced over to his right, seeing four men just starting to gather themselves and get up off the floor, each of them bleeding profusely from their own ears.

"What the shit was that?!" Mimete yelled, drawing Endymion's attention. "You—"

"Would you like to hear it again?!" Endymion growled, threateningly holding his hand over the small brown pot, ready to drop the rest of the chalky powder in.

"No, NO!" Mimete yelled, holding her hands out towards Endymion. "No, no, that's...don't!"

Endymion just stood there, waiting for someone to do something to prompt him to kick off yet another chemical reaction that would deafen everyone within range. Nobody made a move.

"Ohhh…" she pressed her fingers into her temples, massaging her head. "My...my ears…"

"Temporary," Endymion snarled. "This much, on the other hand...shred your eardrums permanently! Not that you'll care. You'll black out from the pain, and then I'll kill you and take whatever I want!"

"I...I got no idea what you're saying, I can't hear shit!" Mimete said, sounding a bit frantic. "Okay, just...just…" She looked over at the four men on the other side of the room. "Someone, go get him his money!"

"I...I can't hear you!" one of them shouted, still wincing and rubbing at his ears.

Mimete emphatically pointed at Endymion. "Him!" she shrieked. She then raised both her hands up, rubbing her thumbs along the tips of her fingers. "Money!" She pointed towards the door to the room. "Go!"

Two of the men got the message, ducking out of the room, staggering off, balance slightly out of whack in the aftermath of the sonic eruption.

"Ohhh…" Mimete continued to moan, grabbing a couple of loose pieces of paper from her desk and pressing them up to the floods of blood coming from her ears, trying to soak it up. "My head…what the hell is that stuff?"

Endymion swallowed down some bile that had built up in his mouth. "Just a bit of science."

Her eyelids fluttered about, shaking her head violently. "Uh...hey...Mask," she managed, clearly still struggling with the after-effects of the sound burst. "Tuxedo Mask, whatever, uh...maybe we got off on the wrong foot."

Endymion glanced over at the two men who had remained behind in the room, then turned back to Mimete.

"Look, uh...I'll consider us square if...hey, if there's any more of this stuff, bring it here," she suggested, pointing at the paper bundle on the desk. "It's incredible stuff. I mean, maybe...maybe I had the wrong idea about what kind of operation you're running. Maybe we can work something out."

The two men re-entered the room, a large burlap sack slung over his shoulder. He ripped the mouth open, presenting it out towards Endymion. It was loaded with bundles of money roughly stacked on top of each other. He tossed it to the floor at Endymion's feet. Satisfied with the payment based off cursory inspection, the Prince ducked down and quickly shrugged the strap onto his shoulder, lifting the heavy collection of currency up.

"Alright, uh…" Mimete pointed at another one of the men. "Can you hear me?! Can you hear me?!"

"Uh…" the man raised his right hand up and shook it back and forth in a gesture best representing 'kind of'.

"Okay!" Mimete pointed at Endymion. "Escort him out!" She spoke slowly and emphatically. "Make sure nobody gets in his way!"

Slowly, Endymion shuffled over towards the door, the three men who hadn't just been given an order giving him a wide berth. The fourth man went out in front of him.

"Be in touch?" Mimete asked. Endymion gave no verbal or physical reply, warily walking across the room and following out the door. "Alright, we gotta evacuate, round everyone up!" she instructed.

"

Two streets south and a block to the east from the brownstone, Endymion finally stopped his hurried, hunched, paranoid walk. He straightened up, glancing behind him, finding nobody pursuing him. Hand still clutched around the pebbles of powder, brown plant pot tucked underneath his left arm, brown sack slung over his shoulder, he could only imagine how he looked to passerbys. Fortunately, the people he did see milling about still seemed to be in a bit of a daze, wandering around in confusion, far more interested in whatever had assaulted their eardrums.

He stopped next to a small transport, room enough for maybe four people, a rectangular-shaped vehicle, black with white decals, the interior protected by a spherical bubble of metal.

He slipped the little pebbles of powder into his left pocket, and reached around himself to pull a tiny remote from his right pocket. He tapped a couple buttons on the remote.

The bubble of metal retracted, exposing the four-seated transport's interior. He tossed the large bag of money into the seat across from the pilot seat, set the pot in the foot well below the seat, and then quickly jumped up into the main seat of the shuttle. Finally relaxed a bit, he leaned over, opening the bag of money, both hands roaming through the creds, making sure that he hadn't been given anything else.

Taking in a deep, settling breath, he straightened back up in the seat. Hand dancing along the main console, the shuttle activated, jumping up to levitate a bit above the ground. He leaned his head back, a self-satisfied smile playing across his lips.

And then, he keeled over, retching, vomiting the contents of his stomach out into the leg space beneath him.

It took a few pushes for Endymion to purge everything out, an unpleasant soup of half-digested food and stomach acid building up on the floor of the shuttle. Finally, with a couple of final pumps, he was empty, all the tension in his body seemingly being released through his digestive tract. He lifted his head back up, taking in a deep breath of air, sucking down oxygen. Unfortunately, the smell from his mess made this process quite unpleasant for him.

Reaching up to wipe some spittle from his lip and chin, thanking every God that there was that nobody could see him right now, he meekly reached forward, the shuttle beginning to shoot forward down the rough street, agnostic to the condition of the road thanks to the anti-gravity pads. Endymion sighed down at the mess beneath his feet.

Perhaps, because of this, he was completely unaware of the small figure, hooded in a golden cloak, emerging from an alley behind him, watching him putter off into the distance.


	8. Faustian Arrangements

Chapter 08: Faustian Arrangements

The small, pure white ball spun through the air, shooting off into the distance, Endymion and Kunzite just barely able to make it out as it went a couple hundred paces down the rich green field in front of the two. The two held silent for several beats, Kunzite holding still in his follow-through, long steel club in his hands.

The ball bounced a few times on the green turf, bouncing and rolling further and further away, finally coming to rest, right in the middle of the light green stretch.

"Every time," Endymion said wistfully. "Right down the middle, exactly where you want to put it, every single time. I don't know how you do it."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Kunzite replied.

"Well, based off your stroke and follow-through, clearly, your ribs are healed completely," Endymion mused. "That's good."

"I feel perfectly fine," Kunzite agreed. "It's good to be back on my feet. Good timing, too. I can't let Zoisite see me bedridden, I'd never hear the end of it."

"How long is he sticking around?" Endymion asked, the pair walking over to the small floating cart behind them.

"Just a few days," Kunzite answered, sliding the iron club into a small slot along the back of the cart. "Looking at documents for days on end, even Zoisite needs to decompress at some point. And he needs to...check in on his charge every now and then. Being away this long, not exactly...normal."

Endymion nodded, jumping into the cart's right seat as Kunzite boarded the left side.

"Your Highness, uh...perhaps this would be a good time to talk about it?" Kunzite suggested as the cart quickly sped across the grassy plain, zooming towards where the two young men had hit their balls, zipping past trees and bushes on the way.

"Good a time as any," Endymion said casually, glancing about the scenery as the cart quickly closed in on Endymion's ball, having not gone nearly as far as Kunzite's. The cart slowed to a stop.

"Once again, I want to stress. I'm not saying it was a bad idea," Kunzite began as Endymion slowly jumped from the cart and went over to the back of it, where all the assorted iron clubs were held in neat little rows. "There was merit to it, and it's not a bad thing that we tried it. But, really looking at it, judging the entire situation, perhaps it's simply not a good idea."

Endymion plucked one of the clubs from the cart, judging the slope of the club face carefully before going over to where his ball had landed.

"So, with your permission, I can...I can make all of this go away. It'll be like we never did anything, there won't be any trouble, we move on with our lives."

"Say, Kunzite, I'm not sure if I remembered to pack the truffles," Endymion said, going up to his ball and standing next to it, judging the way it had landed and how it might affect his stroke. "Can you check the side trunk?"

"...alright," Kunzite said slowly, clearly confused. He silently stood up from the cart, jumping down to the ground and went around to the other side of the vehicle.

Endymion took a couple of practice swings with his club, bringing it up high behind him before violently swinging it forward, as he heard the side trunk being opened by Kunzite. With an amused smile on his face, he placed the face of the club right up next to the ball, got down into a firm, even stance, and pulled the club back up over his head.

With a whip, Endymion brought the club down and around, striking the ball with as much strength as he could manage, sending it flying off into the distance, past where Kunzite's ball had landed and going off towards the flag in the far distance, a few hundred paces away from the two.

After watching the ball land and come to a stop on the plain, he turned towards the cart, putting the club up behind his shoulders and casually looking over as Kunzite's head re-emerged from looking down into the trunk. "So, where are we on those truffles?"

"Um...I'm...I'm not sure I understand, Your Highness," Kunzite said, face wrinkled in confusion as he looked down at the contents of the trunk.

As if ignorant to his confusion, Endymion walked over, looking over into the side trunk. It was filled with stacks and stacks of cred currency, rectangular paper bills, packing the entire storage container to the brim.

"Oh, right, right!" Endymion said lightly. "Yeah, um, almost forgot about that." He went to the back of the cart and replaced the club in the slot.

"I'm not sure I follow," Kunzite said slowly, looking over at the Prince. "Where's this from? The vaults? What's the purpose?"

"Oh, well…" Endymion vaulted himself into the seat on the left side of the cart, crossing his right leg over his left. "You, uh, you remember those guys that ripped you off? Tried to kill you?"

Kunzite's head jumped back a bit, as if he had a physical reaction to the confusion he was feeling. "...yes."

"Well, let's just say...they regret doing that," Endymion settled on. "Come on, your shot."

Kunzite was rooted to the spot for a couple beats before shaking it off and marching up to the front of the cart. "Your Majesty, what are you talking about?" His face practically looked alien, so many wrinkles were in it. "I'm completely lost, I—"

"I had a little sit down with the...person in charge of smuggling over in Latium, and by the end, they saw things my way, and decided that it might be better to have a...business relationship with us."

Kunzite leapt up into the cart, glaring over at his charge with a powerful, piercing look. "Your Highness, are you trying to tell me that you—"

"Alright, I...I think maybe your mind might be...distracted from clubball right now." He reached over, propping his right hand over Kunzite's shoulders. "So how about we just, uh...call it good for the day, ride on over to the bathhouse, sweat it out, and I'll tell you all about it?"

Endymion was getting far too much of a kick out of the bewildered look on Kunzite's face, endlessly amused by how he was able to take the man who was supposed to be prepared for anything and completely throw him for a loop. The cart began to zip off, this time going off the course, heading to the right of where the balls were, going between trees and cutting over towards the entrance to the course.

"

"Your Highness. Please." Kunzite reached up to rub his face. "Please, I am _begging_ you, just tell me you're joking."

The small room was filled with heated steam, making it hard to see much of anything. The two men sat on a wooden bench, both of them entirely naked outside of towels wrapped around their waists, letting the steam clear out their pores and their lungs.

"I give you my word, I will find it as funny as you want me to find it after you tell me it's a joke. I will tell you it's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. Just _please_ , tell me you're joking so I can relax."

"I'm not," Endymion replied simply. "It's true, all of it. Now pull yourself together, this isn't a good look for you."

Kunzite, with a groan, rubbed his forehead. "You...you went into an Imperium smuggler Kingpin's den by yourself."

"Yes," Endymion replied.

Kunzite closed his eyes, covering his mouth with his right hand.

"I mean, I'm sitting right here in front of you, so maybe your concern about hypotheticals that didn't actually happen is just putting needless stress on yourself," Endymion suggested.

"Your Highness, I…" he glanced around the steamy room for a moment. "I can't protect you if you don't let me. None of us can, none of your guardians can do their job if you don't let us! We can do everything in our power to make sure that you are kept safe, and none of it means a thing if you keep putting yourself in these situations! So, please, let us do our job!"

Endymion shook his head. "It...it's not right, Kunzite. These are my decisions I'm making. I sent you out there to do something for this, and you got hurt. Got hurt doing something that you didn't even want to do, because I told you to do it." He grimaced. "So what, I'm just going to keep...sending my guardians out there to get hurt for me?"

"Yes!" Kunzite insisted. "That's exactly what you're supposed to do! That's what we do."

"Well...it's not right," Endymion repeated.

"Ohhhh…" Kunzite moaned, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "How did you even...find this place?"

"I gave a free sample to a couple of street dealers, said if they wanted more they had to take me to their boss," Endymion said. "Seemed like the best way to do it."

"They could have killed you...you could have been killed the moment you stepped inside the building...at any time you could have been killed before you would have even had the chance to react…" Kunzite mumbled to himself.

"I wasn't! Clearly!" Endymion insisted. "Let's focus on that part, okay? I'm alive and well!"

"What if the chemical reaction hadn't worked?" Kunzite asked. "You went in there armed with nothing but a bit of hyper-pure lexington powder and vadonterus acid, if the reaction hadn't worked, think about what would have happened!"

"It's science, Kunzite, it's...it works every time. Chemical reactions don't randomly choose when to work and not work, it just works." Endymion nodded.

Kunzite sighed deeply, taking in a large portion of steam to his lungs. "And, Your Highness, just because you were able to safely extricate yourself doesn't mean that everything is fine. You are a _very_ high-profile person."

"No no, it's okay, I...I'm aware of that, obviously. I wore a disguise." Endymion reached up to tug on a chain above his head, releasing a new blast of heated steam into the room.

"What kind of disguise?" Kunzite asked.

"Um...tuxedo," Endymion said hesitantly. "I wore a tuxedo, top hat...cape, gloves, you know, the...you know the fashion."

Kunzite stared flatly at his charge for several beats.

"Oh! And, a mask," Endymion added. "Yeah, a...remember the masquerade ball we had a couple years ago? I just...put the mask on from that. Over my eyes."

"A mask?" Kunzite repeated.

"Yes, it...it covers my eyes."

"I recall," Kunzite said tersely. "Is...is that it?"

"Uh...I think so," Endymion said slowly. "I mentioned the cape, right?"

Kunzite put his right hand up to his eyes, covering them in exasperation.

"Look, they didn't recognize me!" Endymion whined. "Trust me, I know the reactions that people have when they suddenly see the Prince of Earth standing in front of them, and none of them had any of those kinds of reactions!"

Kunzite slowly shook his head.

"Come on, just...stop worrying about what _could_ have gone wrong, it worked," Endymion insisted. "They didn't know who I was, I'm...I'm sure of it."

"Did you at least give a fake name?" Kunzite asked.

"Uh...of course," Endymion said evasively.

"What was it?" Kunzite asked, tone indicating that he wasn't sure if he wanted to even hear it.

Endymion turned to his left, grabbing a small bag with a nozzle on the top of it, lifting it to his mouth and taking a large drink of water from it.

"Your Majesty?" Kunzite prompted as Endymion guzzled down the ice cold liquid.

Endymion set the bag down next to him. "...Tuxedo Mask," he said under his breath, quickly clearing his throat.

"...I'm sorry, what was that?" Kunzite continued to push.

"...Tuxedo...Mask."

Kunzite once again started to silently stare at the Crown Prince, blinking every few beats, the silence enveloping the entire room and saying more than anything Kunzite could verbalize.

"Because I was wearing a—"

"I get it," Kunzite interrupted. It was rare for the Earth general to actually stop the Prince mid-sentence. Endymion figured he'd let it go this time.

"Okay, look, I...I forgot to come up with a name, okay?!" Endymion said defensively, looking over at Kunzite self-consciously. "And they put me on the spot, and...I just blurted out the first thing I could think of that…that..." he trailed off. "Didn't sound...stupid." He pursed his lips.

"So what's my name now? Cape Boots?" Kunzite asked dryly.

"If you...want it to be," Endymion replied meekly.

Kunzite grunted, but then gave a half-hearted shrug. "Well, I suppose that name can't really link you to your actual identity," he admitted.

"Right," Endymion said. "And that's what matters."

"Nevertheless, Your Highness, at the _very_ least, if you wanted to pursue...vengeance, you should have consulted with me or one of your other guardians," Kunzite said, staying firm in his defense of his role in Endymion's life.

"Okay, you...you have a point," he acknowledged. "But what's done is done, and it worked. Sorry, I just...I didn't like the idea of these guys out there, just getting away with it."

Kunzite blinked a few times, leaning back against the wall of the steam room. "Did...did you say something about a business relationship earlier?"

Endymion sat up straight on the bench. "We still have ten libras of refined Imperium. She seemed interested in purchasing it. And there's a mutual respect between us now, so I think we may as well proceed."

Kunzite grimaced, face pulling taut. "Are you...do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Hey, she's not going to try to mess with us now, not after what I did," Endymion assured his guardian. "Look, if you don't feel comfortable with it, I don't blame you, you can...just let me handle the transaction alone—"

"No." Kunzite again stepped on Endymion's sentence. Again, the Prince chose to let the rudeness go. "Absolutely not."

"Okay then," Endymion said. "We'll change the way we do things a bit, make things safer, and I think we'll be fine. In a couple days, we should head back into Latium, see if we can get her to take another two libras, work out some kind of system."

"I…" Kunzite paused for a moment. "Her?"

"Yeah," Endymion said, looking over at Kunzite and nodding. "Her. Not bad looking, either."

"Hm." Kunzite chewed on his tongue for a moment. "Interesting."

"Oh, by the way, three hundred thousand of that money is yours," Endymion added, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.

"How do you figure that?" Kunzite asked.

"I had them cough up extra, in light of your...trauma at their hands," Endymion explained, sighing as he felt the steam seep into his pores.

"What am I going to do with money?" Kunzite inquired.

Endymion shrugged. "Buy more capes and boots."

Kunzite gave his charge a caustic look, but after a moment simply reached up to yank the chain above his head again.

"

"We're getting close, I promise," Princess Mercury said softly, holding her hand out towards Princess Serenity. The two young women were standing out on the balcony just outside Endymion's bedroom, overlooking a seemingly endless stretch of buildings that made up the fanciest that the Earth had to offer, taking in the pleasant midday atmosphere, a clear day with blue skies and an un-oppressive heat.

"Oh, I don't mind," Serenity replied, leaning up over the handrail and looking over the tops of fancy towers and expensive buildings. "Nothing screams romance and love to me more than giant piles of paperwork and documentation."

Mercury gave a wan smile. "It's going...well, by the way." She nodded. "Zoisite's been...agreeable. Please don't tell anyone I said that."

"Of course not," Serenity agreed. "I'm not completely lost when it comes to politics. Just mostly." She reached over to Mercury's right shoulder. "It's good to see you, by the way, I...I didn't think I'd see you until the wedding. Really good to see you."

"When Zoisite said he needed to head back to Earth, I figured...why not come with him, you know?" Mercury explained. "See how you're doing. So, how are you doing?"

"Oh...pretty good," Serenity said noncommittally. "Pretty good."

"You're happy here?" Mercury prodded. "The Earth Palace, you like it?"

"Oh, of course, it's...it's much nicer than the one on the Moon, much...better use of space too." She grimaced a bit. "You know we basically abandoned the east wing of the Moon Palace?" She shrugged. "Just a dark, barren wing, an eyesore."

"Oh, stop," Mercury chided. "It's not that bad, you just...downsized a bit."

"But yeah, it's...beautiful here. Everything matters, everything serves a purpose, it's...I love it." She blinked a few times. "Endy's, uh...he's been a little different lately."

"Oh really?" Mercury prompted. "Good, or bad?"

"Well…" she gave a little smirk as she looked down at the steps leading up to the palace entrance, several stories below. "He's been...friskier lately. A little more energy, if you get me."

"I, uh...I think I do," Mercury said quickly, averting her gaze a bit down towards the marble steps below.

"So, that's good," she acknowledged. "He's opened up to me a bit too. I don't know if it's the marriage announcement or what, but he's...confided in me. Like, in ways that are...so, personal. As if the walls are just finally getting knocked down, once and for all."

"Well, that makes sense to me," Mercury said, voice low as she glanced back at the blue curtain between them and the entrance back into the bedroom. "You're about to become family, for the rest of your lives, it's...different than when you're just together. He feels comfortable with you, like he can tell you anything." She nodded.

"And...and then...in other ways, it feels like he's going the other way," Serenity said quietly. "I know that doesn't make sense, but…"

"What do you mean?" Mercury asked.

"He's been more...serious, lately. Ever since the marriage announcement, he seems more stressed than ever about possibly becoming King. Like, it's a burden now." She put her hand up under her chin.

"He's getting older," Mercury reasoned. "The throne gets closer every day."

"He's been...gone quite a bit lately," she continued. "It's odd, he won't even tell me why. Not really, he...it's always vague. He has to go do...something with Kunzite, he'll be gone all day. Gone all morning. Gone all night." She shrugged. "Wasn't like that before. He seems less comfortable, somehow. Less...I don't even know the word, prepared? Composed?"

"A royal does have responsibilities," Mercury suggested. "And the older you get, the bigger and more difficult those responsibilities come."

"I just kind of thought that we'd...be spending more time together as we got older, not...not less," Serenity mumbled. "I mean, a few years ago, he would definitely spend time away from me, but I knew it was his education, he was spending time with scholars and instructors. I thought that, when that was over, he'd...well, it'd just be me and him." She shook her head. "God, I probably just sound really selfish now, don't I?"

"No, no, I...I don't think that," Mercury said.

"The way he's acting, it's just...it's confusing. You see what I mean? Hard to really...define it. He's just been a little strange. And it's a bit odd, how vague he's being."

"It's probably boring," Mercury proposed. "He doesn't want to bore you with the details of politics, that's probably all it is. I...I wouldn't overthink it, Serenity. I'm sure that, once you two are officially married, and…" she glanced down at Serenity's stomach for a brief moment. "...well, yes...you'll be with him practically all the time."

Serenity nodded. "Thank you, Mercury. I appreciate it. You're right, as always, of course, I...you're right."

Mercury reached over and stroked Serenity's left shoulder.

"Hey, Mercury, if I spat over the balcony ledge, and it fell down to the palace steps and hit someone, would it hurt them?" Serenity asked out of nowhere.

Mercury blinked rapidly a few times, face going blank. "W-what?"

"Yeah, if I spat over the ledge, and it...y'know, hit someone in the head, would it like...would it actually hurt them?"

Mercury shook her head rapidly back and forth, as if shaking off disgust at the suggestion. "Who is putting these ideas in your head? D-don't do that, really, just...don't do that."

"I wasn't going to do it," Serenity said defensively. "I was just...wondering if it could actually hurt someone."

"...p-probably not, but...don't do it," Mercury warned. "That's, that's disgusting. Who is giving you these ideas?"

"Nobody!" Serenity insisted. "It just...occurred to me just now."

Mercury rolled her eyes. "Well...things like that _shouldn't_ occur to you."

Serenity gave a little grin.

"

The area around the meat cart was quite populated during this time of day, a bustling wave of people moving in every direction, between the many small tables that were set up every several paces. The Crown Prince of Earth and his most trusted guardian were sitting at one of these small, circular, green tables. Endymion had a tin plate with a rolled-up piece of bread on it, the insides filled with meat.

Kunzite continually glanced over at his charge, who was back in his 'disguise', wearing the mask, cape, hat and suit combination that made him look like a fictional character from a children's story more than anything else.

"If you had just...consulted with me or any of your other guardians," Kunzite said under his breath. "A little bit of hair-dye, some cheek inserts, maybe some unfashionable clothing, and you would have been unrecognizable."

"I don't see anyone recognizing me right now," Endymion whispered.

"Perhaps, but...everyone is looking," Kunzite muttered. "That's not ideal either."

"Well, if everyone's looking, and nobody can tell who I am, then that bodes well for the disguise, doesn't it?" Endymion replied. He reached his gloved hands down towards the meat wrap in front of him, picking it up.

Kunzite immediately reached over, placing his hand atop the food as Endymion lifted it to his mouth. "Do not."

"But I ordered it," Endymion reminded him. "It'd be weird if I ordered something and didn't eat it."

"Why'd you order it?" Kunzite asked.

"Because it'd be weird if I was sitting here and didn't order something. What's the big deal, it's just...bread and meat." He looked down at the wrap in his hands.

Kunzite puffed a little breath out of his nostrils. "Do you know how they put the meat inside the bread on those?"

"I would...assume they put it in there with...their hands?" Endymion said slowly, confused by the question. "I don't get it."

"The meat comes out of a hose," Kunzite explained. "They just spray the hose out onto the bread."

Endymion's face wrinkled, forehead contracting slightly. "How does...how does meat come out of a hose?"

Kunzite raised an eyebrow over at Endymion as the Prince turned to look at him.

"Uh...huh," Endymion mumbled, looking back at the wrap in his hands.

"You take one bite out of that thing, I can personally promise that you'll spend the next two days in the latrine," Kunzite added. "You'll be lucky if we can get you home in time."

Endymion set the wrap back down on the plate.

"Wow, talk about committing!"

Both young men's heads snapped up. A few paces from them, Mimete was approaching, wearing a yellow dress and large red earrings. Two large men flanked her, one of them carrying a large burlap sack.

"Still rocking the costume, uh...I respect that, in a weird way," Mimete said, quickly taking the seat opposite the two men on the other side of the table.

"I didn't expect to see you in person," Endymion admitted.

"Well, you're a very special client, so I thought I'd make the extra effort." She flashed her gaze over to the right a bit, looking at Kunzite. "Oh, the partner. How are your ribs?"

Kunzite just sat there, a mild scowl on his face, ready to turn violent at a moment's notice if necessary.

"How are your ears?" Endymion countered.

"Not great, actually," Mimete admitted. "Been sleeping bad lately, ringing just won't stop." She gave her head a quick shake. "But, water under the bridge." She leaned in a bit. "Assuming you've brought the…"

"We've got it," Endymion answered. "You?"

The man to Mimete's right stepped forward and dropped the burlap sack at her feet. She nudged it with her leg across to the other side of the table, pushing it along the floor underneath the eating surface. "Eight hundred thousand."

Kunzite slowly bent down a bit, pulling the sack over towards him and undoing the knots that tied it shut. Endymion kept his eyes on the orange-haired woman in front of him.

"So...how much product are we looking at here?" Mimete asked, steepling her hands together in front of her and leaning forward towards the disguised Prince. "How long can we expect this...relationship to last?"

"I wouldn't worry about us running out anytime soon," Endymion replied. "You keep paying up, we'll keep supplying you."

"Good to hear," Mimete answered. "This stuff, it's changed everything for my operation. As much as you have, I'll take."

"Looks good over here," Kunzite said, head popping back up from underneath the table.

Endymion got to his feet. "Be right back." With quick, large strides, he walked away from the table, pushing past a pair of hooded men and going over towards the far wall.

Kunzite and Mimete sat there in silence for several, staring each other down.

"So, no hard feelings?" Mimete suggested. "I mean, you got a pretty generous injury settlement, right?"

Kunzite had no reaction, simply blinking a couple times, glancing up at either of the men a step behind Mimete before returning his gaze back to the woman.

"Oh, come on, man," Mimete said with a little laugh. "You oughta know, no honor among thieves! I had to do it!"

A few beats later, Endymion returned with a paper-wrapped package under his arm. He set it down on the table in front of Mimete before taking his seat. "Good to complete a business transaction with you that doesn't involve an explosion."

Mimete unwrapped the edge of the package, peering down inside it before sticking a reader tip into it. "You bring me another two libras in, say, six days? That work?"

"I think we can swing that," Endymion answered.

"Oh, not here, though," Mimete added, re-sealing the paper wrapping after a moment. "I'm leaving Librum in a couple days and we'll be ramping down distribution here."

Endymion flinched back slightly. "L-leaving? Why, what's going on?"

Mimete hunched over a bit, putting her hand up next to her mouth. "It's time to move on. Gotta stay one step ahead of the agency."

"But...but this is the perfect place for this kind of stuff," Endymion countered. "Look, we're doing this out in the open, public place, and everyone's just minding their own business, why leave? The agency doesn't have roots here, do they?"

Mimete scoffed. "Not right now, but...the moment they realize the product that's being slung on these streets, that's gonna change. A bust is gonna happen, any day now this is gonna pop up on their radar, and then this whole city's gonna be crawling with agency pricks. Dealing is gonna be impossible."

Endymion's face twitched at a bit as he took in that statement, letting the significance of her words strike him.

"Oh, come on, buddy!" Mimete said with a smirk. "You're surprised? Tuxedo Mask, uh...can I call you Mask? Anyway, Mask, you had to know...the moment the agency realizes that something like _this_ exists, they're gonna hunt you to the ends of the universe." She glanced about. "Give it five or six days, every...third or fourth person walking around here is gonna be a spook." She cleared her throat. "Don't worry, your product is good enough to be worth it for me, and in a few cycles things will cool down here and I can come back, but...you wanna continue this, come find me in Yarlford." She stood up, grabbing the package. "See you boys, stay safe."

With that, she turned and departed, followed closely by both of her enforcers. Endymion just sat there, deep in thought.

"Does she seem a little off to you?" Kunzite asked, looking over at his charge after watching the three individuals disappear into the crowd. "Not entirely sane?"

Endymion nodded.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Kunzite said, standing up and placing his hand on Endymion's left shoulder, sack of creds slung over his shoulder.

"

"Four hundred thousand a libra, say...costs us...about nine hundred for purifying materials. Cost of transport out into deep space, plus delivery of product, just call it a thousand total. Two libras every six days, call it sixty-one deliveries in a year. Forty-eight million, six hundred and seventy-eight thousand cred profit per year." Kunzite looked over at Endymion.

The two were holed up in the back of Endymion's walk-in closet, back near the assorted accessories, standing between two of the large shelves. Endymion was leaning up against the shelf behind him, Kunzite standing in front of him with his arms folded over his chest.

"Not even fifty million creds a year," Kunzite accentuated. "The palace's yearly expenditures on food and drink alone exceed that."

Endymion nodded, his brain cranking as he stared vacantly down at the floor.

"Even minor investments into educational programs for the planet are typically many times more than that," Kunzite muttered. "Defense spending increases are more than an order of magnitude bigger."

"Yes, yes, I see that," Endymion whispered, glancing over at the closet door on the opposite side of the room, peeking over rows and rows of outfits.

"All I'm saying, Your Highness, is that we need to consider if the return on investment is worth our time," Kunzite said. "What are we trying to accomplish here? Even our promised financial assistance on the Moon is going to run into the billions. Are we really going to spend all of this time and effort in order to make enough to...get a new set of glassware and china for the palace?"

"We need to make more, faster, that's obvious," Endymion agreed.

"Now, possibly, over time, we might be able to increase our delivery sizes, depends on how big her operation is," Kunzite continued. "Double, triple, quadruple our profits, still not really worth the effort." He swallowed. "Remember, you're cycles away from becoming a husband, and a few more from becoming a parent."

"Yes, yes, I...at that point, Jadeite could be your lab assistant," Endymion said quickly.

"And it will be difficult to keep the miners on the Moon away from that cave at a certain point," Kunzite added. "We could pursue relationships with other smugglers, but at a certain point, we may run into difficulty obtaining enough Grenyx to synthesize fast enough." He shook his head. "Even for someone like me, it may be difficult to acquire enough without attracting attention." He thought for a moment. "We might be able to get around that, might need Nephrite's network. Still—"

"We're leaving too much money on the table with our synthesization process," Endymion said suddenly, voice a bit stronger than it had been earlier in the conversation. "We need a higher purity product."

Kunzite blinked a few times. "Your Highness, we are producing the purest Imperium that we possibly can, I researched this issue as much as I could. Ninety-two percent is as good as we're ever going to get."

"We both know that's not true," Endymion countered. "Kunzite. If parabolic correlation holds past ninety-eight percent purity, we might be leaving...sixty to seventy percent of its potential on the table here. We could be getting double or triple the price. We won't know until we test it, but it's certainly significant. And, besides that, we're taking a massive amount of potential energy and tossing it in the trash with our current purification procedure. Whatever it takes to take advantage of every bit we can, it's worth it."

"There's nothing we can do there," Kunzite insisted. "What you're talking about, it can't be done."

"There's a formula for synthesizing Imperium with fractional purity loss," Endymion continued, ignoring the warnings of his guardian. "Less than two percent, maybe not even one percent. It exists, Kunzite. Don't tell me it doesn't."

"And we will never get it," Kunzite said. "It's impossible. Locked up tight by the agency."

"I don't want to hear impossible," Endymion muttered darkly. "My father is the most powerful man in the galaxy, I'm the Prince of Earth, you're the finest general the Earth has had in centuries, and, by the way, my father sits on the high council of that agency, and you're telling me obtaining a _recipe_ is impossible." He scoffed. "I don't accept that."

"Yes, Your Highness, your father sits on the agency high council, and even _he_ isn't allowed access to that formula!" Kunzite protested. "None of them are! Only the Grandmaster of the agency and the laboratory scientists aboard _The Savery_ are given access to it, and none of those people ever leave the station." He stared Endymion down. "Your Majesty, I am not...lying to you because I think it'll be too difficult to accomplish, or that it's risky, if I thought those things I would tell you that. It _can't_ be done. That formula exists in only one place in this galaxy, and I'd have an easier time getting to it if it was at the center of the sun."

Endymion stared back up at his guardian, crossing his arms over his chest, frowning a bit.

" _The Savery_ is covered with cutting-edge sensors and weaponry. If a spaceship bigger than my fist tried to get within a hundred thousand dolichos without getting clearance, they'd know about it and have a thousand canons ready to blast it into dust. You can hardly move a step in that place without it getting detected and reported, even if you did get inside." Kunzite nodded assuredly. "I'm sorry, but it's not a question of difficulty or risk. It's simply impossible. Even if we had your father's co-operation, it can't be done."

Endymion seemed to relax a bit, sighing a bit, chest shrinking down fractionally.

"Frankly, Your Highness, we'd even have a much easier time getting into…" Kunzite tilted his head downward a bit, trailing off, face going blank, mouth easing shut.

"Kunzite?" Endymion prompted, standing up straight from the shelf and bending down a bit to look at Kunzite's face.

Kunzite just blinked robotically for a few beats, clearly deep in contemplation. "...yes...well, perhaps." His mouth tightened a bit, and then he looked up at his charge. "Your Highness. There may be another way."

"Another way?" Endymion repeated.

"That formula may exist in one other location in the galaxy," Kunzite said, looking over at the closet door across the room. "Possibly. I'd even say probably." He blinked a few times. "And it's possible we might be able to get it, but…"

"But what?" Endymion prompted, looking quite excited now, leaning into Kunzite, hanging onto his every word.

"We'll have to bring a third person in on what we're doing. A particular person," Kunzite began to march over towards the closet door, fitting his large frame just between assorted outfits on either side of him.

"Someone who may not be entirely trustworthy?" Endymion asked, giving hot pursuit behind his guardian, deathly curious.

"Oh, no, it's not a matter of trust, it's, just...well, he may have some opinions on all of this." Kunzite reached for the knob back out into the Prince's bedroom, turning back to look at Endymion. "Your call."

"Who?" The Prince asked.

"

"Black market Imperium smuggling?"

The four word sentence said so much more than most four word sentences managed to accomplish, using tone and meter to convey meaning beyond the actual definition of the words. Endymion picked up on all the little insinuations behind the question, so clear was it's subtle implication.

Zoisite's private chambers couldn't help but feel a touch odd. Unlikes Kunzite, he had taken some time to make the room his own, and had done so with several shelves full of leather-bound books, as well as a curious pastel color scheme that seemed somehow at odds with the rest of the palace. The walls and ceiling were a soft pink, a color that normally might have been calming but in a place like this seemed rather odd. The shag carpet below their feet was also a bit of an interesting choice. Well, to Zoisite's credit, he had certainly made the room his own. And in Endymion's opinion, he could keep it.

Zoisite was sitting up on the edge of the bed, hands on his knees, looking over at Endymion and Kunzite, who were seated on a mauve couch in the middle of the room.

"I...Kunzite, this is hardly your style of humor, I've known you long enough to know that," Zoisite added, looking over at his elder guardian. "Perhaps the Prince, I could see it, but you...he's put you up to this, then? Involving you in his little joke?"

"It's not a joke," Kunzite said with a small sigh. "It's the truth, Zoisite."

"Although for the record, smuggling is just part of...we're also mining and synthesizing," Endymion threw in quietly.

"Oh...wow," Zoisite managed, putting his hands up to cover his face as he leaned his head back. "I leave the planet for a few days, and this is what happens?"

"I know it's a lot to take in at once," Kunzite said. "But it's the truth."

"Wow!" Zoisite ducked her head back down to look at the two. "You...you do understand who your father is, right? What he does? How he feels about...this particular criminal activity?"

"He's very aware, Zoisite, now—"

"You know, I completely understand not reporting it. Not saying I endorse it, but I get that!" He got up. "Could completely change the nature of the merger, I...sure, keep it under your hat, but this is beyond the pale, how…" she looked over at Kunzite. "How did you allow the Prince to get involved in something like this?!"

Kunzite gave him a flat stare. "It was entirely the Prince's decision, Zoisite—"

"Oh, what could have possibly been going through your minds, to even...consider this?! You couldn't have picked a worse strain of criminal activity to undertake if you tried! If there's one thing that the King won't cover up for you, it's this!" He began to wander around the room, going around behind the couch, both Kunzite and Endymion twisting their heads around to follow him. "You'd have a better chance getting him to help you cover up killing Princess Serenity!"

"Zoisite?"

"And for what, money?!" He spread his arms out to the sides. "We snap our fingers and money comes falling into our pockets, any time we want, as much as we want! Have you seen our balance reports lately?! There's a reason why the royal house on Saturn is begging us to help them fight their civil war, because they know we've got the funds for it!"

"Zoisite."

"What you've described to me already sounds like enough to land you a lengthy sentence on board _The Savery_ , a disowning from the royal family of Earth, and probably banishment to the outer planets, so—"

"Hey!"

Zoisite finally stopped, snapping his head over to look at Kunzite. Shooting him a bit of an odd look, he rotated his eyeballs over towards Endymion, then looked back to Zoisite.

The young general seemed to finally catch himself, going a bit red as he realized where his tirade had taken him. "U-uh...I...I question your decision making in recent times. Your Highness," he managed to say meekly.

Endymion just stared at him for several beats, the tension palpable in the room. Finally, he turned away, looking back in front of him. "It's okay. So do I."

Zoisite relaxed a bit.

"But...is there going to be a problem from you, Zoisite?" Endymion asked, not turning to look at his youngest guardian.

"Of course not," Zoisite said immediately. "Nobody will hear it from me, of course, I'd never do that." He shook his head. "But, I must say, if you continue down this path, you _will_ be caught. You sleep five rooms away from where an agency council member sleeps, who also doubles as your father and your King."

"Be that as it may, the Prince has chosen his path," Kunzite said, standing up and turning to face Zoisite. "Now, you're heading back to Mercury tomorrow, are you not?"

"Yes, I am," he acknowledged, nodding.

"The vaults," Kunzite said simply. "The palace vaults on Mercury. You know them? You've been in there, haven't you?"

"Once," Zoisite replied, hesitating slightly. "Few years ago, when I was finishing up my education there."

"Can you get back in there?" Kunzite asked.

Zoisite's face wrinkled. "N-no, nobody gets in there, only the royal family and a couple of high-ranking scholars are allowed in there, outside of the very rare guest. They only let me in once because...my intelligence scores were basically perfect, they were trying to tempt me to stay instead of returning to Earth. And believe me, they didn't let me touch anything."

"But perhaps you could finagle permission to get back inside?" Kunzite continued. "Maybe Princess Mercury could be convinced to allow you access for a short time?"

Zoisite blinked a few times, face twisting a little bit. "...I...I doubt it. Kunzite, they have basically all the knowledge of the known universe in there, knowledge is the most precious thing to the Mercury Royals, they'd sooner part with their diamonds. I doubt they'll just let me check something out for some light reading between negotiations."

"There's something in that vault that we need," Endymion spoke up. "One of the many pieces of secret knowledge in that vault, that Mercury refuses to share with others, hoarding for themselves to perhaps one day use as leverage."

"Well, they _definitely_ wouldn't let me look at that," Zoisite insisted. "They've been keeping that information secret all this time and they're just going to...let an Earth general wander in there and check it out?"

"Well, obviously you wouldn't _tell_ them what you want to do," Kunzite said. "But we need a formula, it's almost certainly in there somewhere. The formula for synthesizing Imperium with minimal loss of purity. I'm sure that the House of Mercury would want to make sure they were the only ones who had it in the event that the agency were to fall. That's exactly the kind of knowledge they would prize. I'm sure they have it."

"I...I'm just not s-seeing how I'd get in there," Zoisite stammered. "It's not even a...a question of strength, I doubt you or Nephrite could get in there either, and...beyond that, I'm not going to fight my way in. That's a terrible idea, for many reasons."

"We're not asking you to," Kunzite assured him. "I'm asking you to persuade Princess Mercury to allow you access into the vaults. Do you think you could do that?"

"U-uh…" Zoisite was truly flustered now, looking around his room, scratching the back of his head nervously. "It's...it's hard to say...she's very smart as well, and she knows better than to—"

"Zoisite." Endymion drew himself up to his full height and slowly turned around towards his guardian. "Do you think it's possible that you could utilize your relationship with Princess Mercury to let you into the vaults?"

Zoisite blinked a few times, going red in the face. "R-...R-relationship?" he repeated.

"Yes. The negotiations. You're hammering out the Kingdom merger with her, right?" Endymion cocked his head a bit.

"O-oh," Zoisite said, relaxing a bit. "Y-yes."

"Alright then," Endymion said. "Is it possible that you could use those negotiations to convince her?"

"Uh…" Zoisite looked down at the floor, as if searching for something. "I...it's...it's possible."

Endymion's eyes flashed. "Then I'm counting on you. Find your way into that vault. Find the formula. Bring it back to me and Kunzite."

"W-well, Your Highness, if I may," Zoisite spoke up suddenly. "I...I don't know if I should."

Kunzite cocked an eyebrow over at Zoisite.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Endymion requested, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It...it can go wrong!" Zoisite said, voice cracking slightly. "I mean, the merger could be put at risk if things go poorly, we have alliances and trade deals with Mercury that could be damaged if she were to take offense somehow, I...that vault really is the most sacred thing to Mercury, and...and she's a very nice woman."

Kunzite's head recoiled a bit away from Zoisite in mild shock.

"Princess Mercury, she's...she's nice. Friendly. A-and...she doesn't...I would prefer not to...trick her like this," Zoisite managed to force out, confidence visibly waning under Endymion's glare.

The room was silent yet again, the tension having returned after an extended hiatus.

"Your Highness, is this an—" Zoisite began.

"Yes," Endymion replied flatly.

Zoisite sighed, but quickly nodded. "O-okay," he said. "Okay."


	9. Making Dolos Proud

Chapter 09: Making Dolos Proud

With a tiny little click, the plain white paper envelope landed on the desk surface in front of Kasios. He stared at it for a beat, then looked up to his right.

A tall, thin man with pale skin and blonde hair stood there, next to him, towering over the Earth King thanks to Kasios currently being seated in a plush leather chair. His hand dropped back to his side after following through on the little flick to put the miniature paper container on Kasios's desk.

Kasios reached forward, grabbing it and prying the edge open. He dumped the contents out onto the desk in front of him, a few tiny little crystals, clear with a slightly hazy tinge, pouring out.

"Okay, what do we got?" Kasios asked, poking one of the crystals with his right index finger. "Forgeries?"

King Kasios, as the fifth-highest ranking member of the twelve-man council, had a private office that, while it was no match for his chambers back on Earth, was quite the lavish and fancy residence. An octagonal room, seven of the eight walls devoted to assorted charts and data graphs, with a mahogany desk near the back, the furthest away from the one wall that was entirely a door back out into the rest of the station. Chandeliers of crystal hung from the ceiling, a reminder of home.

"No, King Kasios, that's...that's genuine," the man replied as Kasios bent down to look at the crystal better.

"For the last time, Kasios, it's Kasios," the King grunted. "I'm not a King here, how many times do I have to say it? And how the hell is this genuine, it...it doesn't even look real."

"Ninety-one percent pure," he added. "Refined."

Kasios picked his head back up, looking over at the man across the desk from him. "That's impossible."

"That's what everyone else said," he admitted. "But they've run every test we can run on Imperium, and there's no questioning it. It's real, and it's...spectacular."

Kasios blinked, a look of stunned disbelief taking over his features. "Parabolic?"

"Yes."

Kasios reached up behind his head, scratching at his short mane of black hair, slowly looking around the room. "I...Naxos, buddy, where did this come from? How wasn't I informed that we found something like this?"

"We just found it," Naxos explained. "As in, today. _We_ didn't refine it."

Kasios practically jumped out of his seat at this, rocketing up to his significant full height, chair falling backwards and tumbling to the floor behind him. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"Routine bust," Naxos said. "Some guy on a street corner, making it a little too obvious, we picked him up, took him in to grill him, and...he had this."

Kasios looked around the room yet again, as if in a daze, eyelids fluttering as he blinked rapidly. "You're saying that...this stuff turned up on the black market?"

"I'm afraid so," Naxos said hesitantly. "Which implies that there exists a black market Imperium chemist, an extremely talented one with access to high-quality materials and a sterile environment, who—"

"—has himself a supply of raw Imperium that exceeds...ninety-nine percent purity," Kasios finished, putting his hand up to his forehead. "What did the slinger have to say?"

"Nothing," Naxos said. "And he had less than a sextula on him, so I doubt he'll feel obligated to say much, he's at least smart enough to know we can't stick any more than a Class E offense." He grimaced. "We didn't even catch him selling it, we can only pin him for possession. He'll be back out on the streets in...twenty days, maybe less. Five hundred cred fine, no way he gives up anything to get out of that."

Kasios grimaced. "We won't even be able to get him up here before we have to let him go."

Naxos nodded. "I just wanted to give you a heads up, the Grandmaster is about to call an emergency meeting about this." He pointed down at the loose crystals on the desk. "And you'll probably have to answer some questions."

Kasios flinched a bit. "What do you mean?"

Naxos reached forward, tapping one of the tiny crystals. "This was picked up in Librum."

Kasios looked as if he had just gotten punched in the temple, practically staggering back. "Librum, that's right by the capital." He put his fist up to his mouth, resting his index finger on his upper lip. "Right next to me. Might as well be my backyard."

Naxos nodded. "Now, Your Highness, I'm not...accusing you of anything, obviously. Nobody here would, ever. But, it came up in your territory, so, there will be some—"

"I get it," Kasios said, putting his hands on his hips, nodding. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Thank you, Naxos, I...I appreciate it."

Naxos nodded back. "Alright, let's go."

"

Princess Mercury crunched up a perfectly-round little pearl of a white powder between her thumb and index fingers, letting the particles fall into the tall, thin glass goblet, quickly disintegrating in the light yellow liquid within.

"You have to try this," Mercury said, pointing at the white pearl in front of Zoisite, right next to the base of his cup. "Trust me, it...makes you feel like you're floating."

Zoisite picked the little sphere up in his fingers, looking it over. "I must say, I didn't expect you to be some...connoisseur of alcoholic beverages," Zoisite remarked bemusedly. "I knew your talents and skills to cover a wide breadth, but wine?"

"Well, in my family, anything worth doing is worth doing right," Mercury remarked, watching Zoisite drop the powder ball into his drink. "And if you're going to drink a little, you may as well make the experience worth the while."

Mercury picked up her glass, lifting it to her lips, pausing for several beats to inhale the aroma before she tilted it back.

"Now, just let it...kick in," Mercury said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. "The first pulse is the strongest." She gave a little shiver, curling up a bit before sinking back into her chair slightly. "Mmmmm…"

"Should we...really be getting inebriated while we're handling these negotiations?" Zoisite asked, looking at his glass for a moment.

"Well, the way I see it...if we both make sure we drink the same amount, we'll both be equally inebriated, and everything will work out," Mercury suggested with a playful grin.

Zoisite nodded, and then took a sip from the glass.

He set the cup down, blinking rapidly and hunching over at a bit, shuddering. "Mm, you've got a point. That's certainly something."

Mercury nodded. "And, of course, no negative side effects. No brain cell damage. Shame it's so expensive and hard to make, or else it'd be replacing half the galaxy's illegal drugs."

Zoisite swallowed down. "Um...Mercury. I, um...I have a little request of you." Zoisite took another drink from the little glass, giving him a little shiver of delight.

"Go right ahead," Mercury said, putting her nose over the mouth of her goblet and delicately sniffing.

"Um...you know, there's one little experience in my life, that...I wish I could have back. One thing that I've done, that...I feel like passed me by without me really appreciating it the way I could have."

Mercury, who had reached over to pick up her blue pen, had her hand frozen right before grabbing it, turning to look at Zoisite.

"And, I'm wondering, if you could...help me get this moment back," Zoisite said, stumbling a bit over his words.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Mercury asked, putting her left elbow on the desk and placing her hand on her cheek. "I...if there's something I can do to help you, sure, but I don't see how—"

"I...I've been allowed entry into the Mercury Palace vaults," Zoisite rushed out. "I don't know if you knew, but...back when I was being educated here, they let me in."

Princess Mercury stiffened up slightly, breath hitching subtly.

"I mean, it was...obviously just an attempt to get me to...stay here instead of going back to Earth, I get that...hey, look at what we might let you check out one day if you stick around, that sort of thing. Didn't work, obviously, but...when I was in there, I really felt something." She leaned in closer to Mercury. "The...the combined knowledge of all the universe, in one room, I...I felt it."

"Oh, yes, I...I think I know what you're talking about," Mercury agreed, nodding. "Being in that vault, it's...invigorating. To think about all the things that are surrounding you in there, being right next to so much knowledge, it's...it's something. But...what are you asking for?"

"I feel...like I maybe didn't fully appreciate the experience, that time." He frowned a bit. "I was distracted, and…I don't know, I feel like I maybe missed out on something. Do you...do you think that, maybe...I could get back in there?"

"Ummm…I, I don't know about that," Mercury said, glancing away from Zoisite and nervously folding her hands on the desk in front of her. "That's...that vault, hardly anyone gets inside. And unless you're a direct member of the royal family, there has to be a very good reason."

"Well, I don't think my reason is a...bad reason, at least," Zoisite commented. "It's at least above-average, right?"

Mercury grimaced. "I'm not...I'm not sure, Zoisite, that would be a difficult sell to my mother."

"I'm not asking you to sell it to your mother," Zoisite insisted. "You have access to that vault, same as her, right? You're in the royal family and you're of age."

"W-well, I...yes, yes, I do, I...I have access, but, that...she wouldn't like it if I didn't have a good reason to let...someone else in," Mercury said slowly. "I'm just, I feel for you, I understand your position, but...I'm just not sure it's a good idea."

Zoisite swallowed down hard. "It would mean an awful lot to me, Mercury. I...I'm asking. It just, it excites me. I've...done so much reading and research in my life, sometimes it feels like I know just about everything, and...you don't get that kick of excitement and the...the thrill of learning something new anymore, it...it's a drag. And, I mean, I know that vault contains things I don't know about, things that barely anyone knows about, so...it's like an itch, you know?"

Mercury reached forward to stroke her fingers along the stem of her glass. "I know exactly the feeling, I...I completely understand, but...okay." She turned her body towards Zoisite, squaring up with the Earth general. "I see what you're getting at, I know what you're trying to suggest, and...I _do_ owe you, like I said, and I'm not...disputing that or trying to go back on that, I promise. It's just, this particular thing, it's...it's a very big thing. I can already tell you, if my mother knew, she wouldn't approve of it."

"I'm not asking your mother, I'm asking you," Zoisite reiterated. "Believe me, I wouldn't be pushing this point if it didn't mean a lot to me." He put his hands out to his sides. "I know the Queen of Mercury would never let an outsider like me in that vault, not without a plasma cannon pointed at her head. That's why I'm asking you."

Mercury bowed her head a bit, folding her hands up in front of her and resting her forehead on them. "If she found out, she wouldn't be happy...there could be consequences."

"Well, if I may, I can assure you that if the King found out about…" he gestured down at the stack of documents on the desk. "...this, then he wouldn't be happy either, and there would _definitely_ be consequences."

Mercury rubbed her hands together nervously, closing her eyes and sighing. "I...I know I must be coming across as very ungrateful right now, and I swear, that doesn't sit well with me, it's not at all how I want you to perceive me."

"I don't think that," Zoisite comforted. "Believe me, I know I'm not asking for a box of chocolates here. I was just...hoping that this was my one opportunity to...you know...atone for my past mistakes." Zoisite shrugged. "But, if you can't do it, you can't do it."

Mercury exhaled slightly. "I...I…"

Zoisite feigned as if he had lost interest in the discussion, reaching to pick his pen back up and turning to a document.

"Later tonight," Mercury finally said.

"Hm?" Zoisite looked back up.

"Later tonight, um...we'll go," Mercury said, lifting her glass back up to her lips and taking a large drag from it.

"To...the vault?" Zoisite asked.

"Yes, yes, the...it's only fair," Mercury said, voice a little shaky. "No, I...I asked you to stick your neck out for me, if I deny you this, then I'm...I'm being a brat." She nodded to herself. "And I'm not a brat, I'm...I'm not." She took in another deep breath. "And...I'm eighteen now, so I can do this if I want to. She wouldn't like it, but...well, so it is."

Zoisite gave a small smile. "Thank you, Mercury. I appreciate it."

"Little later tonight, we'll go, I'll...I'll let you read something from the back section, even."

"Back section?" Zoisite repeated.

"Uh, the...well, you know this, I'm sure, we...have some things down there that you can't find anywhere else," Mercury explained. "Uh, all kinds of stuff, some, uh...stuff about the galaxy before recorded history, I'll...I'll let you see it."

Zoisite's right hand clenched into a tight fist, the general hiding it behind his leg. "That sounds lovely. Thank you, Mercury."

"

Right behind the Earth Palace, an entire heredium of space had been carved out for the horses and horse-related activities, a rich green field of grass that gave the majestic animals all the room they needed to run around, even coming with a round dirt track and some jumping obstacles. It was an especially nice day, clear and clean with a nice warm sun beating down on everything beneath it. Princess Serenity was using the day to trot around on a small horse, pure-white without a single spot on it's body of any other color. Grinning, goading the steed into a gentle walk around the large, fenced-off field, she reached forward to run her hand along the horse's mane.

"No faster than that!" Endymion called out, leaning up against the fence, standing just outside the horse field. "I'm serious, that's...that's fast enough, okay?!" He swallowed. "Can't take any chances right now."

"I promise, I'm just going to walk him!" Serenity called out, pacing the horse around. "Just like this, this won't hurt the baby!"

Endymion looked over to his left, Kunzite standing there right next to him. He twisted his head about, making sure nobody else was within earshot, finding the surrounding area satisfactorily vacated, before looking back at his guardian. "You don't think...Zoisite and...and Princess Mercury...did you get that sense? I kind of did."

Kunzite twisted his head around to look at Serenity slowly trotting around on the back of the horse. "Not really my area of expertise," Kunzite muttered.

"Hm," Endymion grunted, pursing his lips. "I mean...how would _that_ work?" Endymion rubbed at his lip for a moment. "Think about it. Zoisite, King of Mercury _and_ guardian of Earth King Endymion." He shrugged. "Don't know how that'd work, but...that's something."

"I wouldn't worry about it going that far," Kunzite said under his breath. "If it's going anywhere at all."

"Shit, was I...Kunzite, was I too brunt with him? Be honest, please," Endymion asked.

"What do you mean?" Kunzite questioned.

"He...I don't know, he kind of irritated me with his little rant, I can't lie, and then, trying to turn down my request, just, it didn't sit well with me. But...I just, even if he's just...friends with Mercury, then of course, asking him to do something like this…" he gave a sheepish little look, looking down at the ground. "...I'll...I'll apologize to him, when he gets back."

Kunzite didn't say anything, just glancing over at his charge as he spoke.

"I think I came off a little rough," Endymion said. "I'm, I'm just...I'm trying to really do something here. I wouldn't ask him to do something like this if it wasn't really important." He looked back over at Kunzite. "It's important, right? You see what I'm saying?"

Kunzite nodded.

"I'll apologize to him, I could have...been nicer," he muttered. "So anyway. I was thinking. The money."

Kunzite continued to glance around every now and then, a casual move that could easily be dismissed as someone stretching, but served to make sure nobody was around to listen in.

"It's, what, one point six million creds right now?"

"One point nine," Kunzite corrected. "I'm _not_ taking the...injury settlement."

"Ohhhh...you are absolutely no fun," Endymion teased.

"I have no use for money beyond my duties, and my private accounts are more than enough to handle that," Kunzite insisted. "So, anyway, it's not exactly doing anyone any good under the floorboards at one of my safehouses."

Endymion chewed his cheek for a second. "We need a business of some sort. Should be easy enough to sell to my father, just...hey, dad, I'd like to try my hand at getting some real-world business experience, test my acumen, see if I can take a floundering little business and turn it into a money-maker." He nodded. "He'd definitely get behind that. Then we can...gradually wash the money through. And at a certain point, I go, I don't need this money for me, let's just...stick it in the treasury." He shrugged. "We just have to find the right business. Beauty parlor, hobby shop, spaceship maintenance and cleaning, I'm sure we can find something good."

Kunzite nodded. "It'll be a slow process."

"At first," Endymion agreed. "But, whatever investment we make is guaranteed to be a roaring success, so it'll be easy for me to justify continuing to acquire more businesses. Bigger ones." He tilted his head around. "Wow, dad, I'm really good at this, I'm gonna keep at it."

"That might bring in other complications, but...we'll address that when it's time," Kunzite reasoned.

"I think she's starting to get a little antsy," Endymion said suddenly, his gaze turning back to Serenity, off in the distance, slowly goading her horse to walk about.

"Hm?" Kunzite questioned.

"Just a sense I'm getting, she...she's just getting a little...uncomfortable with me spending so much time away." Endymion brushed his fingers across his upper lip. "She's...she's rather clingy, you know."

"I'm aware," Kunzite said. "If you're suggesting she's getting suspicious, then perhaps we need to change the way we're doing things. You have other generals who are honor-bound to serve you, Your Highness, use them."

"N-no, not that, it's just...it...it kills me," Endymion said under his breath. "All of this, everything I'm doing...it's for her." He nodded. "I mean, you see that, don't you?"

Kunzite glanced over at Serenity, who was cheerfully stroking her horse's mane again.

"I...she deserves so much better than what her Kingdom has become," Endymion continued to whisper. "She deserves a grand Kingdom, filled with all the riches and splendor of the galaxy. A beautiful palace, coated with crystals and jewels of every kind. Vaults overflowing with riches. The respect and admiration of every man, woman, and child alive." He tilted his head back to look up at the skies. "She deserves all of that."

Kunzite held silent, arms folded over his chest.

"I just...she would never understand, would she?" Endymion said wistfully. "She wouldn't get it. I just wish she could, just...look at what I'm doing for her, and say, he's done it all for me. Because he loves me so much." He frowned. "But...she couldn't see it that way, could she?"

"Probably not," Kunzite said delicately.

"Well...it doesn't matter," Endymion reasoned. "She's going to live to see the Moon shine again. Maybe I can't...make it the supreme power in the galaxy again, but...I'm going to make it a Kingdom to be proud of again. Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do."

"

Princess Mercury carefully placed the long match into the circular bulb of glass, placing the small fire at it's tip on a round black fuse inside. The fuse caught fire, the flame quickly spreading until the lantern had enough fire within to illuminate everything within a small radius.

She grabbed the handle on the lantern and turned around, presenting it to Zoisite. "We project a very strong field inside this vault. No technology of any kind works in here. So we're back to using fire."

Zoisite took the lantern in his right hand, reaching his left hand out towards the long match in Mercury's hand, the flame at the end of it still weakly dancing about in the air, smushing it between his thumb and forefinger. Mercury's eyes widened a bit as Zoisite's fingers pulled away, leaving behind a charred, smoking, extinguished match tip.

"H-how did you do that?" Mercury asked, looking at the dead match.

Zoisite gave Mercury a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"Well...doesn't that hurt?" Mercury tossed the dead match into a small bin on the floor by her feet.

"Sure it does, a little bit," Zoisite admitted.

"Well...well what's the trick?" Mercury asked, grabbing her own lit lantern off the table next to them. "How do you do it?"

"The trick?" Zoisite pursed his lips. "Uh...not minding that it hurts." He turned to look out at the large, towering chamber, dark and dreary, and yet, to Zoisite it could have just as easily been filled with the rarest jewels in all the universe.

Symmetrical wooden bookshelves rose up to the ceiling in neat little rows, seemingly every shelf loaded with books of varying sizes and shapes, reading material to last an eternity. Zoisite wouldn't have minded 'accidentally' getting locked in here for awhile, assuming he had enough matches to keep the lanterns going.

"Alright, all of these shelves...probably mostly things you know, these readings are available on other planets, places...just, not all in one place," Mercury explained. "Now, the back wall, on the other hand...therein lies the real treasure."

Passing by the many polished wood shelves, padding across the floor, the two quickly came up to a much smaller set of shelves, lined up against the back wall of the room, these ones similarly loaded with reading material. Zoisite staggered just a little bit as he walked, Mercury noticing the slightly askew gait but not addressing it. Everything was labeled, clearly in alphabetical order, making it all easy to find.

"Now, what I'm about to do...there are _several_ portions of my mind that, even as we speak, are begging me to not do. I...letting you in here at all, that's one thing, but...this part, here...I mean, I can hardly believe I'm doing it. W-what I'm trying to say, is…"

"I'll boost the livestock imports," Zoisite said, giving a tiny little burp.

"Thank you," Mercury said, opening her mouth to say something else but deciding to hold it back.

"And we can scratch the mine inspection," he added quickly.

"I…" Mercury twisted her head over to look at the Earth general. "...really?"

"Y-yeah, whatever," Zoisite said. "We can ballpark it, no need to...actually go digging around down there.." He shrugged. "Just use the average yield of the past...five hundred cycles."

"Uh…" Mercury blinked a few times. "...okay, uh...thank you." She stepped forward, up towards the shelf, looking at the labels on the wood. "Alright, history. Ancient history. As in, before recorded history as the galaxy knows it began." She stopped, holding the lantern up. "There are things you can find about that era, if you really know how to look…"

Thankfully for Zoisite, 'I' came right after 'H' in the alphabet, meaning that it took only a quick scan from his eyes to find his target. A few spaces to Mercury's right, a thin silver book, the word 'Imperium' spelled out along the spine. He checked the nearby books, just to be sure that it was the only one that could possibly contain the information he had been told to take, but the neighboring books made no mention of Imperium.

"Well, you're from Earth, so maybe you'd like to learn a little bit about Earth, say, five thousand, ten thousand years ago?" Mercury suggested.

"Oooh, sure," Zoisite said, stepping to the side and reaching out towards the Imperium book. "Oh, here it is!"

Mercury's head snapped up as Zoisite whisked the book out of the shelf, quickly opening it up and peering into it, holding the lantern up to look at it.

"Uh, no no no!" Mercury said frantically, standing up and quickly reaching towards the book, Zoisite turning away from the Princess and using his body as a shield, rapidly flipping through pages. "Zoisite, please, it's not that one!"

"Oh, stop it, I'm sure this is the right one!" Zoisite said airily, trying to act as disoriented as he could, turning pages every couple beats, looking as if he wasn't actually taking in any information on any of the pages, but in reality his eyeballs were quickly taking in everything on the pages, deducing whether or not they held the information he needed, before he went on to the next one.

Mercury danced around Zoisite, trying to get around to the book, both of her hands trying to grab it. "Please, Zoisite, give me that, you can't look at that one!" she continued to plead.

Zoisite gave a dismissive little laugh, staggering over to the right, away from the shelves, trying to make it look as if he was nearly falling over. "Mercury, please, I think I know how to read a book title!" He turned another page, and his cheek twitched slightly as he almost immediately realized he had found his mark. The formula, ingredients and steps for taking raw Imperium and refining it into a usable energy source, spread out across two pages. Other than this cheek twitch, however, he gave away nothing to Mercury that he was actually paying attention to what was in front of him. His eyeballs spun rapidly over the pair of pages, taking in the small print on both of them, brain quickly sketching a copy of it in the time normal people took to read a sentence.

"Zoisite, I'm serious, give it to me, you shouldn't be looking at that!" Mercury continued, starting to clearly get agitated. Zoisite felt bad, as his actions were clearly upsetting the Princess, but his orders were his orders.

A couple beats later, Zoisite had memorized every single ink line and curve on the pages, words and pictures meshed together into a coherent formula in his brain. Quickly, he snapped the book shut, hands fumbling with the rectangular representation of knowledge as he turned the spine towards him.

"...oh." Zoisite said, lowering the book down a bit, allowing Mercury to quickly snatch it from his hands. His face fell. "...well, that's embarrassing."

Mercury spun around and slid the book back into the shelf where it had been. She turned back to Zoisite, a small scowl on her features. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Oh...oh Gods," he muttered, looking down at his open palms. "I think I...I must have had too much."

Mercury's frown disappeared, mouth opening a bit in surprise, large eyes blinking up and down. "U-uh...Zoisite, are you...are you…"

"Oh, Gods," Zoisite said, emotion building in his voice. "I drank too much, oh, I'm dead!"

Mercury glanced about awkwardly. "Z-Zoisite, I...I really don't think that you—"

"I, I have a bit of a sensitivity to alcohol, it's embarrassing, I try to pretend it doesn't exist, but...oh, the King is going to flay me alive when he finds out I was drinking during these negotiations!" He put his hands up to cover his face.

"Er, uh…" Mercury swallowed a lump in her throat down hard. "Zoisite, I—"

"Oh, this is bad, I'll be demoted for sure, I just...I wanted to have a good time with you, thought it'd be harmless, oh, Gods," Zoisite moaned.

"Hey, hey," Mercury said, going up next to Zoisite and patting his shoulder. "N-nobody's going to find out about this."

After a short pause, Zoisite tilted his head over to look at the Princess. "...really?"

"N-no, it's...I understand," Mercury said slowly, still rubbing along the Earth general's back. "No, this'll be...our little secret. It's not a big deal, why make it a big deal?"

Zoisite nodded. "T-thank you. Thank you so much."

Mercury dropped her hand back to her side. "Neither of us are perfect, and...m-maybe you had a bad reaction to the powder, it...it's possible. And then it's my fault anyway, so...forget it."

Zoisite slowly bent down towards the floor, setting himself down on it in a sitting position. "Oh, I really...really shouldn't be letting things like this happen."

"Are you...do you need to sleep it off?" Mercury asked. "We can go."

"No, no, I…" Zoisite gave a little chuckle. "I think I...sobered right up, just now. Wow." He rubbed his face. "That's gotta be a record."

"Alright, well...here," Mercury said, turning back to the shelf and pulling a thick book from one of the rows. "Maybe this'll help cheer you up."

Mercury sat down on the floor next to Zoisite, opening up the black and gold book in her lap, Zoisite leaning over to look at it.

"Earth, pre-recorded history...let's take a look at some things," Mercury offered. "Oh, and Zoisite, I...I doubt that you were able to...absorb anything you saw in that book you grabbed." She turned to look at him. "But, if you did, just...put it from your mind, please. Let's just do everything we can to make it like it never happened, both of us."

Zoisite reached over to wrap his left arm around Mercury's shoulders. "Not a problem."

"

With a rapid series of strokes from a black pen, Zoisite filled a blank sheet of paper on the desk in front of him with detailed writing. Kunzite watched his fellow Earth general quickly write out a complicated formula, hovering over his shoulder.

"It was ten days ago you saw this formula, you said?" Kunzite asked.

Zoisite wordlessly nodded.

"If...if there's anything you're hazy on, any ambiguity or confusion on your end, just make note of it, and I'll figure it out," Kunzite instructed.

"Part of the reason I was recruited is because of my photographic memory," Zoisite said, voice stilted and flat. "If I can't remember a couple of pages out of a book, then what good am I?"

Endymion sat on the bed in the middle of Kunzite's private quarters, watching his two generals converse at the desk in the back corner. Hands on his knees, he silently waited for Zoisite's work to be done.

"And the Princess?" Kunzite asked.

"I think she bought it," Zoisite said quietly, still writing even as he spoke to his elder guardian. "And she can't tell anyone about it anyway, not without admitting she let me into the vault. As far as she's concerned, I had one too many glasses of wine."

Kunzite placed his hand on Zoisite's shoulder as the young general finished filling out one page and pulled over a second blank one, again continuing to elegantly scribble along it. "You've done well, Zoisite."

Several secundas passed in relative silence save for the scratching of Zoisite's pen along the blank paper. Finally, he stopped, gently setting the pen down on the desk. "That's all there was. Materials, procedure, that's all of it." He stood up straight as Kunzite gathered up the two sheets, looking them over. "Any questions, I'll do my best to answer them."

"If the need arises, I'll find you," Kunzite said. "You can go."

"We have four libras of product left," Endymion said suddenly, Zoisite snapping his head over behind him to look at his charge. "We deliver two in a couple of days, and then the last of it five or six days after that. Kunzite, I want to be able to present a sample made from this formula for that last delivery."

"Understood," Kunzite replied, eyes scanning the writing before him.

Zoisite turned around and began to walk across the room, taking large strides, but stopped several paces short of the door, freezing in place.

"Oh, yes, Zoisite, before you leave, I wanted to say something," Endymion said, turning his body to look at him.

"I'm sorry," Zoisite said quickly, still staring at the wall by the door.

Endymion was about to continue, but his words died in his throat at this. He blinked a few times, looking over at Zoisite's back. "E-excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, I...Your Highness." Zoisite spun around to square his body up towards the Crown Prince. "I just...my behavior last time we met was not acceptable for someone like me, and it's important for me that you know that my loyalty lies with you and only you."

Endymion recoiled just a hair, giving a subtle flinch in his facial expression as Zoisite spoke.

"I just, I want you to know that...what you need, what you want, that is and will always be my priority," he continued. "Everything else will always be less important to me, no matter who or what it is, and I feel like I've been less than clear on that, and...I'm sorry."

"Uh...it's...it's fine, Zoisite, really." Endymion tried to casually wave him off.

"No, it's...it's not, I don't want you to have any questions about where I stand. If you, if you desired it of me, I'd betray everyone in this galaxy a million times over," he said, voice just a touch neurotic in tone.

"That _really_ won't be necessary," Endymion insisted, putting his hands out towards his most intelligent general.

"And...there can be no secrets between me and you, for any reason, and I know that, and, whatever you need from me in the future, please, do not hesitate to request it of me," he continued.

Endymion gave a slightly befuddled look, giving a glance over his shoulder at Kunzite, who was halfway between paying attention to his fellow general and reading the instructions he had just written up.

"So...there were several little concessions I made in the merger negotiations, in favor of the Moon," Zoisite admitted. "It was...necessary to build up enough good will for her to let me into the vault. I can go over those concessions with you, if you would like, and you can act in whichever way you see fit with that knowledge."

"I...I assumed that you'd have to do something like that," Endymion said casually. "And I, I don't particularly care, I have no interest in squeezing every last drop out of this union, I trust you didn't agree to anything crippling."

"I saw some...interesting labels in the vault, and she showed me some fascinating information about ancient Earth that even _we_ don't have, and if you desire it—"

"Maybe, some...other time," Endymion said, feeling decidedly awkward as Zoisite's speech became even more frantic with each passing sentence.

"Akila!" Zoisite blurted out, going a little red in the face.

Endymion pursed his lips at the bizarre outburst. "What?"

"Akila, that's...that's Princess Mercury's birth name!" he said, glancing down at the floor and darting his gaze about.

"O...kay?" Endymion rubbed at his left temple with his fingers.

"She told it to me, and...no secrets," Zoisite said. "So, there it is, her birth name is Akila."

"You...it would have been perfectly fine for you to not tell me...I don't think I needed to know that," Endymion said slowly.

"Well, I...I need you to understand that, that...I'm your man, and nothing is more important to me than my service to you," Zoisite said, nodding rapidly. "That's all. M-may I be excused?"

Endymion's mouth fell open slightly. "W...what?"

"C...c-can I go, Your Highness?" He glanced over towards the door back out into the hallway.

"...yes, yes, sure," Endymion babbled, gesturing towards the door. Quickly, Zoisite spun around and rapidly marched over towards the door, flipping a switch by it and causing it to whip open with a quick whir. He stepped out, hair whipping around behind his head as he turned to the left towards his own private room. The door snapped shut.

Endymion just stared at the metal rectangle of the door for several long beats, squinting. "What...what was _that_?"

He turned back so his body was facing forward, looking over at Kunzite, who was going over the instructions still.

"Kunzite, did...what was that all about?" Endymion asked. "That was...weird, wasn't it? I've never seen him act like that before, I...I didn't even get a chance to say what I wanted to say to him. What's up with him?"

Kunzite glanced up, over the sheet of paper, to his charge. "As near as I could tell, Your Highness...I think he was scared."

Endymion looked vaguely repulsed for a moment. "Scared of...scared of what?"

Kunzite stared over at Endymion for a couple beats before going back to the formula in his hands. "You."

Endymion regarded this one word with shock, face tightening. He slowly looked back over his shoulder, staring at the door behind him, blinking every few beats.


	10. The Duality of Man

Chapter 10: The Duality of Man

 _PWING!_

 _PWING!_

 _PWING!_

The entire room was smouldering hot, the heat so significant that it caused one's vision to swim. In virtually any other context, it would have been considered a torture chamber. Just a rounded room, all the walls black. In the center was a large steel furnace, a large collection of burning hot coals in it, glowing an angry orange. A purple metal grid was right above this heat source, and resting atop this grid was a long piece of blue steel, most of which was glowing orange thanks to the heat beneath.

Queen Jupiter, stripped down to the most basic of cloth clothing, was raising a large metal hammer up above her head with both hands, then bringing it down with massive force onto the steel, then raising it back up for another swing. She repeated this physically exhausting loop over and over, each swing down onto the steel resulting in a loud _PWING_ on contact.

The young queen was sweating buckets, her skin flushed red with exertion, muscles in her arms pulsing as she continued to beat down on the glowing metal, shaping it. She set the hammer down, taking a step towards the furnace to grab the edge of the blue steel in order to flip it over, before stepping back to resume the violent work.

Obviously, there were machines that could shape a sword, shape it perfectly in fact. And there were millions of those machines on Jupiter, along with ones that could shape armor, and spears, and pikes, and any other metal object you could care to name. But it was a point of pride, to be able to shape them manually. To be able to do it the old fashioned way was something to brag about. And for the Queen, well, it served to earn the respect of everyone. So, whenever she could get a moment or two away, she almost always found herself in here, shaping and molding metal.

With a sharp crack, a section of the black wall was retracted inward and slid slowly to the side. A grey-tiled little room was revealed on the other side, a lone woman wearing green robes standing there, looking quite concerned.

"Your Highness, please!" she called out, waving over at Jupiter, trying to get her attention. After a couple more swings of the hammer, the Queen dropped it to her side and turned to look at her. "We have important things to discuss! This can't wait any longer!"

Giving a little moan, Jupiter leaned her head back, stretching out her neck. "It's odd. As the Queen, you'd figured that I'd be able to make things wait as long as I want."

"Please don't be like that, Your Highness!" she called out, looking around the room with mild trepidation. "We've told you before, once you've taken the throne, your responsibilities will increase many times over and you won't have as much time for this sort of thing! Come here, please!"

Jupiter reluctantly pulled the partially-smithed sword off of the furnace by the handle, looking it over. The lingering heat from the coals stung her hand, but she weathered it. "Well. I suppose it's not going anywhere."

She slowly walked over to the open door, towards her head advisor, swinging the heavy metal sword around in her hands, hanging it up on a metal set of hooks on the wall on her way out.

"And…" she looked down at Queen Jupiter's feet. "...at the very, very least, can you wear shoes when you're working in here?! We've been over this!"

"I can't work with shoes on," Jupiter replied, stepping out of the sweltering hot room and slapping her palm against a panel on the tiled wall, making the door slowly start to shut. "Distracts me."

"More than the...agonizing pain?" she questioned, unable to take her eyes off of Queen Jupiter's large bare feet, as she could only imagine how the scorching heat of the room must have affected the bottoms.

"Pain is relative," Jupiter replied simply, putting her closed hands on her hips. "For instance, I would find it less painful to stick my feet directly into that furnace and rest them on the coals than have to spend another secunda discussing education programs for level three classes."

"Well, about that, actually, we really should make a decision, having all of the youth academies working in unison is important," she began, trying to not act too agitated as Jupiter walked off, heading down the small hallway, fingers running through her sweaty brown hair.

"Lyra, I honestly have no preference, I can't even tell you the difference between them," the Queen said dismissively, pushing a door open and going into a white tiled room with a row of stalls along the wall.

"Well, you should be able to, it's a problem that you can't!" Lyra insisted.

Queen Jupiter reached up, pulling the white cloth strip off of her chest, unwrapping it off her body and dropping it to the floor. Lyra froze, backing up a few steps from the Queen.

"Oh, don't be like that," Jupiter said, looking over her shoulder as she similarly unknotted the strip around her hips, letting it drop down her legs. "Nothing you haven't seen before."

"It's...still not really—"

The Queen opened one of the stall doors, revealing an enclosed little rectangle of space with nozzles built into the walls and ceiling. She stepped inside, slapping a panel on the right side of the little chamber. Immediately, all the nozzles started to spray out cold streams of water all over Jupiter, the watery assault coming from all directions. Giving a little shiver and moan, she tapped the door closed.

The room was now filled with the sounds of pouring water, echoing around the tiled walls. Lyra crossed her hands over her chest, frowning at the occupied stall.

"I can hear you in here just fine!" Jupiter called out. "Go ahead, I'm listening!"

"Okay, well…" Lyra raised her voice. "We still have tariffs with Uranus that need to be re-considered, crime rate is up to dangerous levels in thirty-eight regions now, exports of Halagenic Gas need to be reconsidered in terms of the price, we have—"

"Can I just say yes to everything?" The door the stall cracked open a bit, letting Jupiter poke her head out of the showering chamber, over at her head advisor. "Would that be such a bad idea? Honestly, that has as good a chance of resulting in good decisions as anything else I could do."

"No, you...Your Highness, we can't do that either, I…" she sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry, I understand. It's a massive burden, being the Queen of a planet of more than a trillion people. I know you're overwhelmed. But, running from it is not going to make anything any better. With time, we'll be able to develop a system that delegates responsibility and decision-making, but right now, you need to throw yourself into this!"

"What's wrong with just letting you and your team make all the decisions?" Jupiter asked. "That's basically what happened the last twelve years, why should it have to change so much just because I'm eighteen now? I trust you all, and it's not like the Kingdom is falling apart over the last decade."

"You're the Queen!" Lyra countered. "You _have_ to be involved in this stuff, that's all there it to it. We can help, but you have to be involved."

Queen Jupiter sighed. "I need to marry a guy who can handle this stuff."

"...valid...valid idea, but until then, you have to be part of this," Lyra insisted.

"Serenity has the right idea," Jupiter grumbled. "Okay, just...let me clean up, and then we'll...go over those education programs." She shut the door. "And Serenity only has...what, a billion people on the Moon?" The Queen rolled her eyes. "Wish I could trade."

"

Endymion fiddled with his fingers in front of him, timidly shifting his weight back and forth as he looked at the metal sliding door in front of him. He glanced around, down the hall on either side of him, and then reached forward to knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door slid open automatically, revealing Zoisite sitting on his bed, holding a small remote in his hands. He stiffened up a bit on seeing the Crown Prince standing in the threshold to his private chambers, hands in his lap.

Endymion slowly walked across the small room, Zoisite's eyes trained on him as he moved. The Prince sighed as he approached, glancing down at the carpet beneath his feet for a moment.

A couple of slow beats passed, Endymion shifting his weight from one foot to the other awkwardly, projecting an image significantly different from the one he had given eleven days ago in this room.

"I'm sorry."

Zoisite jerked his head back a bit at this, raising an eyebrow at this proclamation.

"Look, Zoisite, I...I'm...I feel that, maybe, um…" he reached up to scratch his forehead. "Can I sit?"

"Absolutely," Zoisite said, Endymion quickly moving over next to his general and sitting down on the bed.

"I know that recent things that you've learned about me...might seem a little strange, but...I don't want it to affect our relationship. Really." He reached up to put his hand on Zoisite's right shoulder. "I want you to feel comfortable around me, we're...we're friends."

"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Zoisite replied. "I've taken vows, and I take those vows very seriously. I serve you. Not myself, not the King, not any God, you."

Endymion nodded. "Yes, yes, not disputing that, but...I like having a positive relationship with you. So, what I'm trying to say is...what I've had you do for me, I-I know that it probably didn't sit well with you. So, I'm sorry. I wouldn't have asked you to do it if it wasn't extremely important."

"I know," Zoisite insisted, nodding. "I want you to be able to trust me, and...I know I'm the youngest." He grimaced. "I know I've been here the shortest amount of time, and I—"

"Zoisite, if I _did_ have any doubts about your loyalty, which I didn't...I certainly wouldn't now," Endymion assured him. "All I'm saying, is that...what just happened in Kunzite's room, that's not what I want. I want you to be calm and at ease around me. I want to be friends."

Zoisite nodded quickly, still looking rather stiff with his hands folded in his lap and his back straight.

Endymion stood up, putting his arms out at his sides. "Come on, man. Come on. I'm not leaving until I get it."

Zoisite, after a couple awkward beats, couldn't help but crack a smile. "Are you giving me an order?"

"Do I have to?" Endymion asked, beckoning his hands towards him. "Come on."

Zoisite stood up, unable to resist a small grin, and then leaned in towards the Prince, wrapping his arms around his back a little awkwardly.

"It's okay, it's okay, I get that you might have...developed a bit of a friendship with Princess Mercury. And that's great! I got no problem with that, in fact I think it's cool, and probably good for diplomacy, too, I encourage it! And I'm sorry you had to...trick her like that. I know you weren't comfortable with it, just...it was important. I'm trying to do something for Serenity."

The two young men broke their hug.

"And, the fate of the galaxy might hang in the balance. Really, I'm...I'm making the best of a difficult situation. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You don't have to," Zoisite insisted. "I...yes, I like Princess Mercury, she was nice to me and we have some things in common, but it ultimately doesn't matter. I know what my priorities are. And, if you ever need me in the future for help on this...this matter, then I'm here for you."

Endymion slowly reached over, giving Zoisite a couple of smacks on the shoulder. "Money laundering, think about it. We need a way to get the money into clean accounts."

"O-okay," Zoisite agreed. "It's just...Your Highness, I...it's just shocking. To hear that you, of all people, would get involved in something like this, I...it's a shock."

Endymion smiled, nodding. "I know, sometimes I can hardly...hardly believe it, but...well, things happened, and here we are."

He turned around towards the door across the room, heading towards it. Zoisite tapped the black remote next to him on the bed, opening the door with a little hiss.

"

"Alright, give it to me, Kunzite, what are we looking at?" Endymion crossed his arms over his chest, leaning up against the counter. His most trusted general was closing up the drawer underneath the counter, where all of the formulas had been stored, having added one more to the comprehensive collection.

"Not that bad, actually, all things considered," Kunzite admitted. "We'll have to get a tube furnace, but that's simple enough. Most of the materials and substances are easy to obtain, and obtain in large amounts. Honestly, for the most part, the cost difference is negligible." He gave a half-hearted shrug. "There's one exception, but...it's a big exception."

"Go on," Endymion prompted, glancing over at the U.V. Ray Chamber to his left, shoes tapping gently on the floor of _The Qesem_.

"The catalyst for the reaction, it's Boron Crystal Fluid." Kunzite's face wrinkled.

"Well, there's certainly plenty of that in the galaxy," Endymion said casually.

"Sure, but we can't buy it," Kunzite countered. "If you want to buy it, you have to have a verifiable reason for wanting it, and illicit Imperium synthesizing isn't going to cut it. We'll have to steal it."

"Well, there are thousands of hazardous chemical warehouses on Earth," Endymion reasoned. "Most of them should have some Boron Crystal Fluid, so we just find one with some security holes."

"No, we don't steal from Earth," Kunzite said. "This is an opportunity to throw the agency off our scent. We've already got them going through Librum, Yarlford, and Vilma with combs, practically. And I'm sure in a handful of days, it'll be the same for La Pina. Boron Crystal Fluid only has four known uses. It's used in psychic suppressor injections, an immune disease vaccine, fusion explosives, and, so it would seem, Imperium synthesizing. So if we steal some, it'll be obvious what it's being used for."

"Steal it from Jupiter, give them the wrong idea of where to look," Endymion reasoned. "Fair enough."

"I'll take care of that," Kunzite said. He pointed a stern finger over at the Prince. "Alone. You've got the wedding to think about anyway."

Endymion grinned, but nodded. "All yours."

"The King's signed off on the negotiations for the union, so it's a matter of days. Involve yourself in it as much as you can, you'll only be getting married once in your life. And, anything you can do to put Serenity at ease would be good as well."

"Oh, love life coach now. I knew you were a man of many talents, Kunzite, but this is a new one," Endymion teased.

Kunzite cracked a tiny smile. "And, please don't have the wedding until after I get back."

"What if you get caught?" Endymion asked, coming up to his guardian and slapping him on the shoulder.

"I'm not going to get caught," he replied simply. "You just focus on the wedding, and your wife. And maybe think a little bit about how you're going to need to spend your time once it's official."

"I know," Endymion said quietly. "I know, I...good luck." He patted his shoulder a few times.

"

With a curled finger up on his upper lip, Kasios stared at the small mound of tiny clear crystals on the stainless steel table in the middle of the room. He was standing amid a small crowd of people, his fellow council members and a couple of scientists in white lab coats. Conversations were buzzing about around him, but there was a dull ringing in Kasios's ears. Almost as if his mind was intentionally blocking out everything around him so he could focus on the crystals.

Refined imperium, ninety-one percent pure. Each time the agency enforcers brought up a new little paper envelope of the stuff, Kasios reacted almost the same as he had on the first delivery. Yes, you couldn't quite re-capture that initial feeling of shock and fear, on learning that the universe as you knew it was not suddenly a lot more complicated than you thought and that you weren't as in control of it as you thought, but it felt like each new packet of crystals was another strike across the face. It was becoming clear that it wasn't just some random fluke, with someone having come across a tiny little supply of pure Imperium and selling it off to fund a vacation or purchase a hovercraft. Someone was treating this as a business. A lucrative business that would be difficult to stop. And it would only get more difficult with each passing day.

"Mark the date and time, everyone."

Even Kasios's mind knew enough that the time for ignoring people was at an end when he heard that particular voice. The average-sized, plump figure that he knew belonged to Galen, the fifty-one year old Grandmaster of the Galactic Imperium Agency, strolled in front of him, up to the table. He turned his focus to the highest ranking member of the agency.

"As of this very moment, we now have a full uncia of of this new strain of Imperium," Galen announced, pointing down at the mound of crystals. "Or, as they might say on the streets, an ounce."

"So how much is out there?" Naxos wondered out loud, going up to the table side next to the Grandmaster and staring down at the crystals. "Two libras? Three, maybe?"

"If I had to guess, a lot more." Another high council member, Orion, went up to the table next to Naxos. "This Imperium is so potent, the street slingers barely have to carry any. We're literally picking it up a dozen or so carats at a time. I think the typical assumptions we make about ratios can go out the door here."

"Which is also why we haven't been able to get anyone incarcerated up here," Galen added. "Everyone we've busted has either been a Class D or Class E offense, because they've got so little. Two cycles in jail, twenty-five hundred cred fine, nobody's rolling over to get out of that."

"Okay!" Kasios extended his hands out wide to his sides. "Alright, I understand that everyone here is looking at me on this, I get it, and I'm promising everyone in here that I'm getting on top of this!"

"Your Highness, nobody's looking at you on this," Orion protested, waving his hand over towards the Earth King. "This is a problem for the whole agency, it's on everyone to solve this."

"No, no, I get it." Kasios tapped his palm against his chest. "The Earth is mine. This stuff isn't popping up on Venus, or Jupiter, or Neptune, or anywhere else. And, for the millionth time, I'm not doing that Highness crap when I'm on board _The Savery_."

"It doesn't matter where you go, King Kasios," Galen insisted. "You're a King, everywhere in this universe."

Kasios rolled his eyes. "Alright, well, the distribution network for this stuff has been jumping all over the globe, so whoever is behind this is smart enough to keep moving. Librum, Yarlford, Vilma, by the time we move in, they're on the way out. But, something will come up eventually, the moment I see a carat of this stuff pop up anywhere I'm putting a couple hundred agents on the ground. Longer we let this go, the more money these people make, the harder it'll be to catch them."

"Or, if they're not particularly bright concerning tax law and being inconspicuous, much easier," Timon pointed out. "But yes, sooner we jump on this, the better."

"Which is why I'm making it my top priority to spearhead figuring out where this stuff is coming from, and taking down whoever is behind it. As far as I'm concerned, it's on me, and it's the primary thing on my mind, I promise." Kasios nodded confidently.

"No, it's not," Galen said strongly, looking up at Kasios. "I forbid it from being such. And in fact, you shouldn't even be here."

Kasios looked confused at this proclamation, looking over at the Grandmaster. "W-what are you talking about? Of course I should be here."

"Your son is getting married, Your Highness," Galen reminded him. "You've only got one son, and he's only going to get married once, barring unspeakable tragedy. That should be your priority right now. Even I know that."

Kasios grimaced, pulling at his lower lip with his left hand. "I...I know. And believe me, I...I'm going to cherish that, but...some asshole is out there right now with the purest Imperium in the galaxy, making creds hand over fist. And whoever it is, they're in my territory! Word's starting to get out, the general public is finding out, it doesn't reflect well on the agency." He scowled. "If we let this prick keep going, he might build up enough distribution to start selling in multiple places at once. We need to stick this guy now."

"Or girl," a female voice suggested from the collection of people standing together near the small table of Imperium. Jorja, the lone woman voice on the council. "Just saying."

Kasios nodded. "Seriously, in a couple cycles, this stuff might be everywhere on Earth. Every continent, every region...every city. And then what are we gonna do?"

"Regardless," Galen said sternly. "You're leaving _The Savery_ today, and you better not be back here until after the wedding. Work from the Earth Palace if you must, but you shouldn't be here." Galen took a couple strides over to the Earth King and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Family before work. Trust me, that's a mistake that I made earlier in my career, not realizing that, and I still regret it."

Kasios sucked down a deep breath through his nostrils, but then gave a begrudging nod. "Alright, alright, I'm...I'm out of here later today." He looked around the room at the gathered council members. "I'm not going to pretend that we have much to work with, but the task forces that have been going through the cities where this showed up have a little bit to go on. Information packets are going to be distributed in a day or two, read them, and we'll get this prick fast."

"This goes for everyone here, not just King Kasios, consider this our number one priority. Whoever is producing this, assuming they have enough of it, is well on their way to becoming the main player in black market Imperium. I'd like to get him before that happens," Galen added.

"

The warehouse was a plain and uninteresting structure for the most part, a massive, high-ceilinged room constructed of concrete and steel, rectangular in shape, filled with metallic shelves loaded with barrels of virtually every color. Half a dozen men in dirty green uniforms were moving between these shelves, loading barrels onto little hovering platforms and then guiding them over to the northwest corner, where a transport ship had been parked by a loading dock.

Among these half-dozen was a man who had no business in such a place, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to conduct a theft in the name of the Earth Prince. He had located the Boron Crystal Fluid, kept in a dull yellow barrel, but extracting it from the warehouse was going to be a tricky matter. Obviously, there would be no covering up the fact that it was gone, that was unavoidable, but the tricky part was making sure nobody knew until after he was long gone with it.

Kunzite was wearing the same uniform as everyone else, his white hair tucked up into a hat on his head, inserts in his cheeks altering the look of his face and purple-tinted glasses making him look practically unrecognizable. The security cameras all over the facility would not do anyone any good to identify the thief after the fact, for within minutes of his successful thievery he would have destroyed all evidence of having ever looked anything like that.

The transport parked in the northwest corner was his chance to sneak something out. But things had to be timed perfectly. As he moved around, guiding barrels over to the ship, he kept an eye on how full the cargo hold was, watching it fill with assorted chemicals and liquids. It was very close to being loaded with the required payload, at which point it would be sent off to Callisto, where it would be held temporarily until ships from other planets came to pick it up, per trade agreements.

"Alright, that's everything on the manifest."

Kunzite's ears stood at attention, picking up on the conversation happening right next to the transport between two of the warehouse employees. He stopped walking, head down towards the ground.

"We checked everything?"

"Yeah, it all matches, let's get it out of here."

Subtly, Kunzite reached down to the pocket on his left hip, finding a tiny remote in there and tapping at the singular red button on it through his clothes. As he did this, he ducked over inbetween two of the shelves.

On the walls, a few dozen yellow sirens began to frantically flash and spin about, a stomach-curling looping alarm ringing through the air.

"Aw shit, okay, everyone out! Get to the decontamination room!"

The cacophonic sound of boots slapping against the concrete floor filled the air around Kunzite, everyone quickly retreating out of the warehouse, dropping everything to get out of the 'supposedly' dangerous room. Kunzite waited, listening intently, hidden from immediate view. After a couple moments, he heard the doors across the giant room open, and then slam shut.

He had a short window to work, and so he stood up, kicking a floating little square platform across to the shelf on the other side of the room. Hustling over, he grabbed one of the yellow barrels, dropping it on the platform, feeling it's significant weight and hearing the sloshing within. Half a culeus of Boron Crystal Fluid, enough for several hundred libras of Imperium at the least.

Knowing that the security cameras were beats away from reactivating, he sped the barrel over to the transport, quickly loading it into the ship, among the dozens of others. Satisfied, he sprinted back to where he had ducked away during the sudden room evacuation, down between two shelves.

The cargo had already been checked against the manifest, and when the contamination alarm was revealed to be a false positive, the odds of the load being double-checked before being taken was small. It would be a simple matter of getting to the drop off point on Callisto, causing another disturbance, and making off with the barrel before the cargo could be checked there. The theft would be exposed only after inventory on the warehouse was taken, by which time Kunzite would be far away.

"

"Alright, so, you and your mother come in through here," Endymion indicated, running his finger down a thin little path between the rows and rows of benches depicted on the large hologram being projected in the middle of the room. It was a very accurate representation of the interior of The Holy Gobekli Temple, the oldest place of worship on the planet, having been renovated countless times over the years. No place on Earth was more revered and respected, outside of perhaps the Earth Palace, and as such there was no better place for the union between Endymion and Serenity to made official.

"Ooo, the curtains where we come through, c-can they be white?" Serenity asked, pointing at where the hologram showed the entryway, thick blue curtains hanging in the way.

"Oh, they're definitely white, it's just...this hologram makes them look blue," Endymion said quickly. "But yeah, pure white, white as snow, definitely."

Serenity nodded, eyes dancing along the hologram, beaming with excitement. "A-and, over here," she continued, pointing at a couple rows of benches up near the head altar. "Right here, I have a few people who are really important to me, I'd like them here, if that's okay."

"Serenity, _everything's_ okay," Endymion insisted, reaching down underneath her and picking her up in his arms, one hand on her back and the other supporting the backs of her knees. "Everything has to be exactly the way you want it, on this day of all days. Any detail, any specific little thing, I don't care how small it is, I want to make it the way you want it to be." He began to slowly carry her around the hologram in the middle of the bedroom. "So, whatever is going through your mind as you think about how you want this day to go, you verbalize it."

Serenity leaned up to kiss Endymion on the cheek. "O-okay, so, there was one tutor I had when I was fourteen. I was never...the best student, but she...I had a good relationship with her. Alexa, I want her up there, she reached me in a way that others couldn't, she's precious to me."

"Absolutely," Endymion agreed. He glanced down at her stomach. He thought he could maybe, just barely, detect a bump to signify her pregnancy, but it was subtle. Easily hidden. True, after she gave birth, people would do the math and figure out that the moment of conception had been well before the wedding, but it would matter much less by then.

"The head of the Royal Guard of the Moon," Serenity continued. "Head chef, my nanny when I was little, I want them sitting there." She danced her finger along the glowing structure. "I want a big portrait of my father over to the right of the altar, I know which one I want too...he should be here in some way."

"We'll put him right next to the tiara display," Endymion suggested. "Just perfect."

The door to the Prince's bedroom opened. King Kasios entered, holding a small folder in his right hand and a scowl on his sharply featured face as he came in. Endymion's smiled faded, at first thinking he was somehow in trouble.

"H-hey, father," Endymion said uneasily, spinning towards him, Serenity still in tow.

Kasios stopped halfway over to the hologram, looking up, the displeased expression on his face seemingly melting away. "F-...father?" He glanced over his shoulder. "I don't see any Royal Emissaries or Kings of other planets behind me, what's up with that?"

"You...you looked unhappy, that's all," Endymion said softly. "Did I do something?"

"Oh, oh…" Kasios waved the folder around in the air in front of him. "No, no, I...you're fine, sorry, son, I...I'm taking my work home." He held the folder up. "I'm frustrated with this, not you." He rolled his eyes. "Dad, I'm dad, seriously."

"Sorry to hear that, dad," Endymion said, slowly setting Serenity back down on the carpeted floor. "You mean...you mean agency stuff?"

Kasios nodded. "Horrible timing, here we are less than a cycle away from the wedding, one of the biggest days of my life, and I've got this in the back of my head." He slapped the folder across his left hand's fingers with a sharp little rap.

"W-what's going on?" Serenity asked, Endymion glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Last...last cycle or so, something's showed up in the Imperium black market. It's bad. Bad for all of us." Kasios opened up the folder, peering down into it. "Some piece of shit got his hands on product that nobody else has ever even seen before, it's...it makes us look like amateurs. Over ninety-one percent pure, just started popping up on the streets. Ten percent more pure than anything anyone else has ever made, it….it's embarrassing for the whole damn agency."

"Ninety-one percent?" Endymion repeated, unconsciously reaching up and grabbing Serenity's shoulder with his right hand. "That's...how is that even possible?"

"Beats me," Kasios grumbled. "But it's out there, and it's being dealt on Earth. Nowhere else." He scowled. "I just _know_ the other council members are looking at me on this, even if they won't say it. I gotta get on top of this, but…it's not going to be easy."

"I'm sure you'll get him," Serenity assured him, leaning up into Endymion's side. "You always catch these guys, right? That's what you've always said, how is this one different?"

"Oh, we'll get him for sure, but...it's just annoying. Frustrating. He's out there wasting untold amounts of energy on a sub-ideal purification process. But even still, it just makes the agency look bad. Ninety-one percent, blows us out of the water, hate to admit it." He shook his head.

Endymion grimly nodded. "Sorry, dad, I'm sure you'll get him." He paused for a moment. "Or her, I guess."

"Yeah, maybe," Kasios agreed. "Anyway, sorry, I'm...you're in here planning the wedding and I just barge in here bitching about...organized crime, jeez, I…" he gave his head a rapid shake. "Forget it, forget it. Okay, this is Gobekli?"

Endymion turned back to the hologram. "Yup, we're just making sure we've got it arranged just the way we want, but...dad, really, you don't have to feel bad if work stuff has you agitated. I'm your son, I care about that stuff."

Kasios gestured at the hologram. "It's your wedding, son. Last thing I want is to be responsible for you thinking about...Imperium smuggling during your wedding planning."

Endymion gave a thin little smile, squeezing Serenity's shoulder again. "Dad, it's fine, I promise."

"I mean, I just…" Kasios shook his head. "Can you two keep a secret? I, I'm not supposed to be sharing this shit with people outside the council, but...God, I'm sorry, I just wanna vent a little bit, and they won't let me back on _The Savery_ until the wedding is over, you okay if I vent a bit?"

"No problem, not at all, go right ahead," Endymion said, Serenity wrapping her left arm around his back.

He sighed. "Okay, so, we've gotten boots on the ground every city that this Imperium popped up in. Asking questions, making arrests, all that." He opened the folder again, looking down at it. "I was really hoping that by now, we'd have something to work with by now, but...I just got this. Everything they got so far, I don't even know what to do with it."

Endymion swallowed down hard. "N-not much to go on?"

"So get this," Kasios said, Endymion turning away slightly, acting as if he was looking at the hologram of the temple. "The only thing we've been able to cross-verify that might be of _any_ value is...this one particular guy has been popping up in all these cities."

Endymion's stomach clenched a bit. "A guy?"

"Yeah, and...this guy, he dresses like a...like a comedic relief character at a theater play," Kasios said. "Top hat, cape, mask, dinner jacket, I mean...it'd be hilarious if it wasn't so obnoxious."

"A cape?" Serenity repeated, giving a little grin. "Like, a cape on his shoulders?"

"Yeah, the guy who's making the whole agency look like a second-rate mom-and-pop shop isn't all there," Kasios said grudgingly. "Just, it almost makes it more annoying, you know? And we managed to come up with a name for this guy too, someone overheard it, but...Tuxedo Mask." He rolled his eyes. "What do I do with that? Send out a global alert, be on the lookout for a man wearing a cape, mask, top hat, and tuxedo? Answers to Tuxedo Mask? Give it a day, we'll have ten million assholes walking around wearing that outfit. And then what, I issue a decree banning...top hats and capes?"

"Well, dad...if I may...a man who thinks it's a good idea to wear an outfit like that probably lacks the mental stability to stay hidden for long," Endymion suggested. "So, maybe it's a positive sign."

Serenity nodded energetically. "Yeah, what kind of a moron makes himself stick out like that when he's trying to stay hidden? You'll get this guy no problem!"

Endymion squeezed his right hand into a fist by his side, hiding it behind his right hip.

"You're right, you're right," Kasios admitted. "Alright, that...that's it, I promise, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with this, but it's on me, just...keep it under your hats, please." Kasios motioned over at the couple. "I guess I have to...send out our sketch, let people know what's going on, but...I don't think I'm gonna like what happens. Okay, back to the wedding. I'm done venting, I promise."

Serenity turned back to the hologram. "Okay, so, after the ceremony is over, we bring in all the food and put it out on the tables back here." She pointed at a spot on the hologram, on the right side of the room, just past the rows and rows of benches.

Endymion nodded, glancing at Kasios out of the corner of his eyes. He craned his head up towards the open folder, barely able to catch a glance at one of the notes within. A black ink image on a white square of paper, a rough artist sketch of a man. Top hat on his head, masquerade mask on his face.

As he passively listened to Serenity's suggestions on the wedding, he could feel his left hand's fingers clenching into a ball at his side, staring at the drawing.


	11. Can't Live With Them

Chapter 11: Can't Live With Them

In orbit around the planet of Mars, you'd of course find it's two well-known moons, Phobos and Deimos. Both of them were popular tourist spots as Mars preferred to keep the actual planet surface relatively private. And, naturally, there were thousands of manmade satellites, forever circling the red planet, accomplishing goals from overhead surveillance to relaying communication beams to capturing video feeds to send back to the surface.

But there was one particular satellite that was seemingly not accomplishing anything. It simply orbited around and around the planet, not sending or receiving anything of value to anyone. Round with a couple of short antennas at the top, it was smaller than a Class C spaceship. A half-dozen docking ports were around the middle of the sphere, one of them currently extended out and attached to a Class A ship. Currently, a second Class A was approaching the satellite, preparing to dock.

 _The Genetrix_ , it was called, among the people who even knew it existed, which was less than ten total people. The newly crowned Queen Mars, immediately on taking that position, had secretly had it placed there. It was small and insignificant enough to be regarded by most as a defunct communication relay, but was far from it. It was actually a favor by the Queen to one of her dearest friends, Princess Venus. Just a place that nobody knew about, where Venus could come and be far, far away from her troubled life among her parents. A place to hide, immerse herself in her thoughts, and not be tracked by others. So long as she was careful on her approach and departure, it would be kept secret from the rest of the galaxy.

The docking port on the other side of the satellite where the first ship was parked extended out, allowing the small little vehicle to ease into contact with it. At the controls of this small ship, a gorgeous blonde woman dragged her right hand across a panel of switches, deactivating the engines and turning the ship off.

She turned around, standing up from the seat and shaking her head about. Her hair fell just barely past her shoulders, cascading down in golden little waves around her head. The exit door to the ship slid open, revealing a small hallway down to another steel door. She quickly marched down into this hall, shoes clanking on the grated floor.

The young woman wore a yellow, orange, and white leotard, with trimmings at the shoulders and hips that each hid a small golden blade, ready to be whipped out at a moment's notice. A poster child for representing the population of Venus, it was no wonder she had managed to earn her way into her current position.

With a couple of little button presses on a panel right by the second door, she stood there and waited. Beats ticked by, and then, the door slid upward.

Right on the other side, Princess Venus stood, hand on a panel to the left of the door. Immediately, the young woman dropped to one knee before her Princess.

"Inanna, rise," Venus instructed, turning away and going into the center of the moderately-sized chamber, a dark room with assorted chairs and beds lined up.

"Your Highness," Inanna intoned, watching the Princess take a seat in one of the chairs, picking up a whetstone and a small dagger. She began rapidly running the sharp edges along the stone, a little scraping noise sounding off with each run of the blade. "Are you well?"

Venus rolled her eyes. "Define well."

Inanna gave a somber little nod, acknowledging her Princess's slightly sour mood.

"I'm sure of it, that bitch is going to find a way to live to be five hundred just to spite me," she muttered. "Just to make sure I never take the throne, she'll force herself to stay alive forever."

"I have good news, Your Highness," Inanna said, going up in front of Venus and putting her hands behind her back, standing up straight.

"Inanna, at ease," Venus insisted. "Go ahead."

"Five thousand, now," Inanna informed her, even as she took up a slightly more normalized posture. "Five thousand. And growing by the day. Your parents are not popular on Venus, that becomes more evident with each passing day. More and more civilians are willing to take drastic measures if it means the possibility of seeing the end of their reign. You, my Princess, now command over five thousand sleeper agents, embedded among the populace of Venus, ready to fight for you when the time comes."

Venus set the whetstone down on the table, slouching over a bit in the chair. "Five thousand. Five thousand on a planet of five billion, it...we're not even close."

"Your parents have no idea they exist, my Princess," Inanna insisted. "At your command, these sleeper agents can...collect information, carry out assassinations, disrupt infrastructure, cause mass rioting, steal equipment and materials, you name it. These agents will stop at nothing to see you take the throne, you need only give them the orders. Having that element of surprise will make those five thousand be more useful than five million armed soldiers marching on Magellan Castle."

"I get one chance at this, Inanna," Venus said under her breath. "That's it. I harbor no illusions of my parents showing me so much as a hint of mercy if this fails. Best case scenario, I'm spending the rest of my life hiding out on the outer planets. If I get caught, it's life in the dungeons or death."

"Your Highness, if we were to...start a series of riots, perhaps. Maybe take out some businesses, just unhinge things a bit. You might be surprised at how many people jump to our side once a coup starts."

"I'm not looking to start a civil war!" Venus said sternly, stabbing the tip of the sharp dagger down into the table next to her, leaving it standing there. "You think I want a decade-long conflict that results in the death of half our population and the wasting of all of our resources?" She scoffed. "We're already knee deep in debt. If a civil war gets sparked, when the dust clears we'll just end up selling our ass to Earth or Mercury. Look at what's happening on Saturn, not just the destruction and death, but...once it's over, whoever holds the throne will just end up getting on their knees for Uranus or Neptune."

"If we were...smart about the way in which we went about things, there might not be a war," Inanna suggested. "Strike from the shadows, be patient with opportunities and windows, just chip away at the foundation of their rule."

"Too much risk right now. Remember, it has to be clean, quick," the Princess insisted. "If the planet is in ruins when I take the throne, then what have I really accomplished?" She blinked a few times. "And it can't end with my parents dead."

Inanna grimaced, her stance stiffening up a bit. "It's...it's hard to have both."

"I don't recall saying it'd be easy," Venus said, pulling the dagger back out of the wooden stable and flipping it around in her fingers. "But that's the way it has to be. It has to be clean, and it has to end with my parents being convinced to retire to a nice estate on Mercury. I will not have them killed. So we need more, to ensure success." She looked over to her left, out one of the windows that looked out into space. "And we need funds."

"That...has proven to be somewhat more difficult, Your Majesty," Inanna admitted. "I've discussed this with the other Angels, we've been trying to find some way where we can funnel creds into our effort, but...there's not much we can do on Venus. The grip of the government is so tight. Anything we did of significance would be detected."

"We have to look beyond Venus," the Princess stated. "We need money, I'm sure of that. Coups are expensive, particularly one that has to be as well-executed as this one."

"Perhaps...Queen Mars could help?" Inanna brought up. "Mars does have a large surplus, all of that gold they keep, and...they seem uninterested in the material." She nodded. "It's worth asking, perhaps."

Princess Venus quickly shook her head. "No, no, I dare not drag her into this any more than I already have. She's already put herself out there for me by letting me hole up here, if I actually asked her to help fund overthrowing my parents...it's too much. This is my problem."

"If I may, Princess Venus, there _is_ money to be made on Saturn right now," Inanna brought up, feeling her muscles clench up a bit even as the words left her mouth. "Both sides need—"

"No war profiteering," Venus said simply, waving Inanna off. "I need to be able to sleep at night after I've taken the crown."

Inanna nodded quickly, recognizing that it would be unwise to press her on this particular idea.

"I may have something," Venus said after a moment. "There was an announcement on Earth just earlier, you probably haven't had a chance to see it yet." She stood up, turning around and going to the other side of the room. "There's a new player in black market Imperium. They've got an alias and a general outfit description of whoever it is. The guy doesn't seem like he's all there, but the product he's putting in play is unlike anything we've ever seen before." She went over to another table, picking up a thin tablet, projecting an image of a text paragraph and a simple picture of a man from the chest up.

"You...you want to get involved in Imperium smuggling?" Inanna asked slowly.

"Whoever this is, his operation seems to be pretty small. Localized only to Earth, seems like a few cities, at least based off the report that got released. Not really befitting how good his product is." She tapped a couple buttons on the screen, causing a small hologram of a man's face and shoulders to pop up off the screen. Though the details were sparse, the top hat on his head and a mask over his eyes were distinctive. "I saw him, awhile back."

Inanna's eyes widened a bit at this proclamation. "You...you've seen him? How?"

"Not that long ago, I was hanging out on Earth. I just had to get out of that castle, I couldn't stand being around my parents one more beat, so...I just went somewhere. Somewhere I wouldn't be recognized, somewhere that might give me some kind of lead, and...there he was. Dressed like a clown, carrying a big sack...I didn't know what to make of it at the time. But now, the pieces fall into place." She blinked down at the hologram of the rough sketch of a costumed man. "He might just be the key."

"

The Holy Gobekli Temple was as perfect and majestic as you would expect such an important location to be. The main room of the structure was massive, a ceiling so high above it was dizzying to look at. If you could chance a look at it, however, you'd see an impressive mural, depicting the Goddess Terra sculpting the planet Earth amid a backdrop of countless specks of stars. A dozen pure white pillars trailed down to the floor, all of them marble, planting firmly into the brown tile ground. Multi-colored glass windows went nearly from this floor all the way up to the ceiling on many of the walls on either side, spaces between occupied by assorted old paintings. Rows and rows of cushioned, polished wood benches lined most of the area. An altar stood at the back of the room, ready to host the meat of the wedding in a handful of days.

Both Serenities were looking over the majestic chamber, currently empty and plain, no evidence that it was soon going to play host to the most impactful wedding in the history of the planet. Nevertheless, both Queen and Princess acknowledged and recognized how impressive the chamber was. Nowhere were you closer to the Gods than you were here, unless you ventured to Mars.

"It saddened me when I realized that you wouldn't be wedded on the Moon," Queen Serenity said, slowly walking down the alley between benches down the middle of the room. "Felt like the end of an era. Really hammered home the situation that we're in, but...I have to say, getting married here, there's nothing shameful about being wedded in a place like this."

The Princess nodded, clasping her hands in front of her as she strolled alongside her mother. "It's beautiful."

"The merger," the Queen suddenly said, turning to her daughter and stopping. "I had a chance to review it, it's quite generous. I must admit, I wasn't expecting some of the agreements they made." She leaned up close to her daughter's ear. "Mercury did not disappoint."

"So you won't be required to fall to your knees and kiss the hem of King Kasios's robes every time you see him?" The Princess asked sardonically, with a crooked grin on her face.

"Just once a day," Queen Serenity answered. "And obviously, no eye contact." She gave a little laugh. "No, really, Kasios...he's a good man. A little more informal than I expected, but that can also be refreshing, in a way. I was worried when I realized that I'd have to work this out with him, he just seems like such a...a strong personality. But he's reasonable. Kind, even."

"Oh, _please_ , please don't tell me you're actually…" the Princess reached up to cover her face with her hands. "Mother, please, it would be way too weird if—"

"Oh, mind your own business," the Queen said jokingly, crossing her arms over her chest. "No, really, I wouldn't concern yourself with it, we're...I don't think that's going to happen." She gave a small smile. "I'm just happy Endymion is...softer and cleaner. Much more your type." She grimaced. "You've saved the Moon by doing this, sweetie. You really have. I'm just glad that you're getting to marry a man who suits you so well in the process."

Princess Serenity nodded, pushing a lock of blonde hair out of her face.

"How are things, uh...with him?" She glanced about the giant room. "Where is he? Why wouldn't he be here?"

The Princess's face fell a tiny bit. "Oh, he...he'll be along later, he said. Tonight, maybe tomorrow, he...he had some things he needed to take care of." She blinked rapidly three times. "That's all he told me, it's...it's odd. He was never gone this much for vague reasons before."

The Queen gave a look of surprise. "Vague reasons?"

"He won't tell me why he has to go, won't tell me where, just...he says it's political stuff, royal responsibilities, that's all I can get out of him. Lately, more and more. I just didn't think that he'd have so many duties now, he's not even twenty." She shrugged. "I don't want to annoy him, I just thought we'd be spending _more_ time together."

"Oh, honey, I...Endymion is highly intelligent. Brilliant, even, he's going to have plenty of responsibilities as the Prince. The King would be a fool _not_ to have him involved in politics, and it'd be short-sighted to not make sure he's prepared for taking the throne one day."

"I know, I know, I...know that he could end up taking the throne at any time, and he has to be ready, he told me that, I understand," the Princess acknowledged. "But, there's just…" she grinded her teeth for a moment. "For the first time, I just feel like there's a part of his life that I'm being cut off from. I don't like it."

The Queen stood there in silence for a few beats, thinking as her daughter glanced about in mild discomfort.

"Well, sweetie...try to press your way in," the Queen suggested.

"How do you mean that?" she asked.

"Well, I think...if I had to guess, Endymion is maybe making some assumptions about what would and would not interest you." The elder Serenity shifted her weight back and forth a bit. "He likely thinks that...the things he's doing would just bore you. No offense, darling, but you've never shown much of a taste for political theater. Just, really try to convince him that you care and you want to know about what he's doing. I'm sure he'll open up once he realizes you're interested."

The Moon Princess thought for a moment. "Of course I'm interested, I...our Kingdoms are about to become one. What concerns him concerns me, now and forever." She clapped her hands together in front of her. "You're right, I'll just...I'll show him that I care about what he's doing!"

"That's a great idea, honey," the Queen encouraged. "And I'm happy that you're showing so much interest. Just...show him that same level of interest, and eventually he'll realize he doesn't have to protect you from it."

"

Out past the asteroid belt, the modestly-sized ship aimlessly floated through space, engines shut down. A sickly green smoke slowly plumed out of the filtration system on the roof of the ship, being released into the absolute cold, quickly dispersing. Other than that, _The Qesem_ showed no signs of life, looking abandoned and uninteresting. You never would have guessed that, within the holds of the cruiser, groundbreaking scientific discoveries that could change the fate of the galaxy were occuring.

Stepping away from the counter, a large rectangular box flashing assorted colored lights along the front atop it, Kunzite pulled the respiratory mask up his face. He watched the rubber tube that trailed from the top of the box up to the ceiling gently twitch around, then nodded.

"Alright." Kunzite glanced over at Endymion, who similarly stepped back and removed his respirator. "Now, we just wait."

"Man, that reaction is strong," Endymion muttered. "In the flask, wow, the expansion. That's something else."

"I'm just relieved that everything behaved as expected," Kunzite said. "Having you here, on this ship, while doing all this, I...we're really leaving so many things to chance. If Zoisite forgot a single step or sentence, misspelled a single word, any discrepancy, and for all we know we could have been creating a bomb." Kunzite rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "And we certainly have enough Imperium here to vaporize a small moon if it's energy output was made into an explosive."

"Rest easy, Kunzite, knowing that I gave you no choice in the matter," Endymion said simply, glancing around the room, then going over to one of the empty counterspaces, judging it.

"Your Highness, I...we need to have another conversation about logistics," Kunzite started as Endymion occupied himself with measuring out the length of the spare counter. " _If_ parabolic correlations holds and _if_ the refined product is as pure as I expect based off the information I have, we'll get a million creds per libra. Even if we got Mimete to bite on, say, ten libras every six days, which is no guarantee, we are clearing six hundred million a year. We are still not anywhere close to seeing enough return on investment to make breaking so many laws worth our time."

"Well, it's a process, we'll work our way up." Endymion spun around and carefully examined the layout of the room.

"Yes, but _how_?" Kunzite pressed. "There are several bottlenecks and blockages in front of us making this effort worth our time, we should consider how we're going to address them."

"Okay, so, this set of equipment is all we need for this process, right?" Endymion asked, pointing over at the tube furnace and the assortment of beakers, piping, and bowls on the counter, as well as the U.V. Ray Oven.

"Assuming that it worked, yes," Kunzite answered.

"Well, I'm thinking…" Endymion walked out towards the middle of the room, looking around. "...we could have eight of these in here. Eight of those setups. Eight batches, all going at once. There's plenty of downtime during the synthesization, we just have to...stagger it. You and me, we could manage eight setups at the same time, we just have to be precise and careful."

Kunzite looked about. "Possible. That would solve the...production bottleneck, maybe, but we still have distribution, and we still have the fact that the cave is going to be discovered eventually, and the boron fluid supply. So, for starters, distribution, are we _really_ going to pursue...business relationships with more Imperium Kingpins?" He blinked. "Not exactly a profession that attracts the sane and reliable, look what we went through just to come to an understanding with one of them."

Endymion held silent for a moment, going over to the round barrel in the corner of the room, peeling up the tin lid and peering down into the brown liquid within. "Kingpin...is Kingpin really an appropriate term, when the character in question is a female?"

Kunzite gave his charge a confused look, stepping over a bit to set his respiratory mask on an empty counter space.

"What's with that? Kingpin even though it's a woman...while we're at it, Kingdom even if there's only a Queen, why is that?" He sealed the barrel back up. "I guess...Queenpin and Queendom sound pretty dumb."

Kunzite set his right hand on the counter surface, leaning up against it a bit, staring.

"I imagine most words sounded dumb at first, though," Endymion mused quietly, suddenly snapping his gaze back over to Kunzite. "Uh, I'm not concerned about having to work with Imperium dealers, the whole planet knows about our product now. They'll toe the line for a chance to sell it. There are tens of thousands of cities and towns on this planet, we've only gotten it out onto the streets in a few. Not even scratching the surface. Distribution's easy."

"Okay then, in a perfect world, perhaps we'll be making...several billion creds a year, so _maybe_ we'll have something worth the time, effort, and risk. Debatably, at least. Meanwhile, like I said, that cave will be exposed at some point. Could be tomorrow."

"Could be twenty years," Endymion shot back, glancing over at the furnace and watching the indicator lights on the front flash and blink. "Besides, we're about to essentially take control of the Moon Kingdom. How hard can it be to arrange for that section to be ignored?"

"Once the agency puts two and two together regarding the boron fluid theft, I imagine they'll crack down quite hard on it, and make acquiring more almost impossible," Kunzite continued, wondering if there was a roadblock he could possibly come up with that would dissuade Endymion from continuing with this.

"I'm the Prince of one of the most prosperous Kingdoms in the galaxy, Kunzite, I'm sure I can make a barrel disappear every now and then if push comes to shove," Endymion replied dismissively.

"And then, we have the Serenity situation," Kunzite reminded him. "You said it yourself, she's starting to grow uncomfortable with your absences, and I'm sure that the problem will become more pronounced after the wedding. We need to devise a system where everything runs through your guardians."

"You let me worry about Serenity, I've...I've placated her," Endymion assured his general.

"She didn't seem particularly placated to me this morning," Kunzite replied. "And if I may say so, Your Highness, it may not have been wise to miss her visit to the Gobekli Temple."

"We have a schedule to keep," Endymion said simply. "She'll still be there tomorrow, and I'll meet her there, and we'll have an amazing time touring the lower levels of the temple, and she'll forget all about this. I am spending almost all of my time outside of this business with her, she's fine." He chewed his lower hip for a brief moment. "She...she's getting older, she's about to become a mother, s-she _must_ understand that at a certain point that we can't just lay in bed and cuddle all day every day!"

Kunzite held his tongue, arms resting at his sides, watching Endymion stumble through his thought process.

"No, no, Serenity's...whenever it comes up, I just tell her it's politics and...finances and things like that, she can't stand any of those things, puts her right to sleep, always has."

Kunzite slowly nodded. "It still would be a good idea to construct a system where you are not involved in the day-to-day of this operation. It was probably a mistake for you to be here today. I strongly recommend we find another way going forward, all I need is an assistant who can follow orders."

"I...I couldn't have missed this," Endymion insisted. "This is the most important thing happening in the galaxy right now. One of the most important things ever, probably. We're on the brink of synthesizing Imperium with a ninety-eight percent purity rate, maybe a little more! This, what's happening in this ship right now, is going to buy this galaxy an extra few hundred years with the lights on, time enough to...search unknown space, find new Imperium veins, or maybe new resources entirely that can power our civilization." He looked up at Kunzite, a look of mild disbelief on his face almost. "How could I have missed this? What will I ever do in life more important than what's happening, right here, right now?"

Kunzite looked like he wanted to protest, words building up in his mouth, but they never made it out.

"If this works, we'll have guaranteed our survival for thousands of years, Kunzite. I think that takes precedence over...looking over an old temple I've seen many times already."

"Alright," Kunzite conceded. "Fair enough, but next time we need to synthesize—"

"We'll talk about it," Endymion said, finality in his voice. "Later. For now, let's think about the logistics of getting eight workstations running on this ship."

"

Kunzite opened the U.V. ray oven, revealing a large gray tray filled with cubes of refined Imperium. Unlike even the last batch, these ones were essentially perfectly clear. They were difficult to distinguish from glass, so transparent they were. Endymion's eyes lit up as Kunzite examined the stacks of cubes.

Even though he didn't yet know if the synthesization had worked, it certainly looked as if things had gone exactly as planned based off how the product looked. He watched as Kunzite pulled out the reader, gently poking the end of the metal prod into one of the cubes.

Endymion had known excitement and thrill before, of course. Being the son of a mighty King, growing up in a palace, having virtually everyone around him desperate to make him happy at all times, it had a way of guaranteeing his life was filled with mostly ups and very few downs. Maybe too many, as after a certain point, he could almost become numb to these moments of jubilation, as they were commonplace. But, perhaps more than any time he could ever remember, Endymion found himself truly enthralled and invested in what the reader was about to tell him. This was something above and beyond the usual.

And then, the reader blinked out some digits.

 _99.01%_

"Oh, YES!" Endymion yelled, clapping his hands together emphatically. "Ninety-nine percent!" He spun around, pacing a few steps away from the oven, blowing off a bit of energy that had built up from the anticipation. "NINETY-NINE PERCENT!"

Kunzite nodded, pulling the reader out of the tray. "Good sign, but we still have to check the energy output."

"Oh, YES!" Endymion grunted, hands balling into fists in front of his chest as he violently shook them around, seemingly ignoring Kunzite's warning. "YEEEESSSS!" Suddenly, he spun back around, sprinting over a couple steps and jumped up, slamming his body into Kunzite and wrapping his arms around him, forcing the larger bodyguard to stagger back a couple steps.

"Okay, okay! Your Highness!" Kunzite said, grabbing at the back of Endymion's shirt and tugging it down. "Alright, it's very exciting, now that's enough! Please!"

Endymion dropped down. "Kunzite, buddy, we've done it! Hell, that's even better than you were projecting! Ninety-nine percent, I...I wonder if the chemists that work for the agency could even manage that! Oh, Kunzite, you're a magician!"

Kunzite shrugged, giving Endymion a couple of shoulder pats to try and calm him down. "It's just a matter of...following instructions precisely and understanding the science behind it, but...yes, if correlation holds, this is hugely significant." He pulled a pair of tweezers out from his pocket and plucked one of the cubes out of the oven. "I'll check it."

As Kunzite went over to the counter space to the right, Endymion kept his gaze on the tray of cubes. Enthralled by all of the power that the Imperium represented, the Crown Prince was almost overcome with a great rush of emotion. Somehow, it was different, on an entirely different order of magnitude from even their first batch. He was smart enough and had a good enough understanding of math to know that even the eight percent increase in purity was supposed to represent a huge step-up in the utility of the energy. Not only did it mean more money, but the additional value to the galaxy was monstrous. Because of this, the galaxy would survive. The race against time and resources had been won.

By his hand.

"It's holding," Kunzite announced, turning back to look at the Prince, who was snapped out of his power trip.

"Parabolic?" Endymion asked.

"Yes, meaning...if these readings are accurate, I think we can reasonably ask for one point one million creds a libra." He rubbed his upper lip. "They'll have to invent new units of weight measurement for this, this is so potent that most people won't need more than...a third of a carat at a time."

"Are they safe to touch?" Endymion asked.

"Should be fine now," Kunzite reasoned, going back over to the oven and pulling out the tray, shuffling to his right to place it down on the counter. "Each one of these uncias, each cube, could fetch a quarter-million on the streets of Earth."

"Why don't you keep one?" Endymion suggested, reaching over into the tray as Kunzite set it down and grabbing two of the glass-like squares. He took them over in front of him, then grabbed one in his left hand and presented it out to Kunzite.

"What for?" Kunzite asked.

"Well...this is the first time in recorded history anyone's been able to get anywhere close to this sort of purity, it...it's a really big deal. This has to be right up there with the first ever Barson tunnel through the asteroid belt. We should keep a little token of it, you know?" Endymion pressed his left hand right up to Kunzite, just in front of his chest.

"I'm not really the sentimental type, Your Highness," Kunzite protested. "It's perfectly fine, I'm happy with...just the memory of this. And it might not be a good idea for you to keep one, either, the last thing you want to do is be caught with something like that."

"I don't mean, I'm not saying we'd carry them around or anything. I just mean, keep it here. On board _The Qesem_." Endymion withdrew his hand back, looking down at the crystals in his palms. "This ship has to be a safe place to keep it, right?"

Kunzite thought for a half-beat before nodding. "Well, that's fine, um...why don't you keep both of them? You know, for...both of us?"

Endymion nodded, reaching down underneath the counter and sliding an empty drawer open, storing the cubes in the hidden compartment before closing it back up.

"Alright, let's pack up, and I'll open up a tunnel to shoot back to Earth," Kunzite said, reaching down to the floor at his feet and picking up a black bag, opening it up on the counter and picking up the tray.

"Wait, wait," Endymion interjected, stopping Kunzite just before he was about to dump the Imperium into the bag. "I...I told Serenity I might not be back until morning, we should have enough time to make another batch before then. The timing should be perfect, actually, if we start cleaning the containers now."

Kunzite, taken aback, set the tray back down on the tablespace, turning to his charge. "You...you want to make more? Right now?"

Endymion nodded. "Why not? It's not easy to cut out time to get up here, let's...take advantage of all the time we can get. I already told her that I might be gone awhile, let's use that. Come on, for...for all we know, this might be the last time I get a chance to participate in one of these, let's double-dip."

Kunzite, after a moment's pause, picked up the tray and began dumping it into the bag. "Very well."

"

"I remember, when I was a little girl, and I found out about...you know, giving birth, I was terrified," Serenity said, laying back on the large bed, eyes closed, body twitching slightly as Endymion rubbed his large hands along her feet in his lap.

"I can't blame you on that one," Endymion said, looking up at Serenity's face from the foot of the bed.

"Just...the idea of growing a person inside of you for cycles and cycles, slowly ballooning up, and then you have to...push it out of you, I thought it was the most terrifying thing I had ever heard." She gave a tiny smile. "Wanted nothing to do with it. Told my mother that I'd never go through with it no matter what."

Endymion wordlessly continued massaging her feet, enjoying how he was able to provoke such strong spasms and responses from her body with little more than light stimulation.

"But now...thinking about it, it's really amazing. That I have everything I need to grow a human being, right here." She reached up, placing her hands on her belly. "All the...little things that make a person a person, I can do the whole thing right in here."

"Well... _almost_ everything," Endymion pointed out. "I might have...supplied a little something."

Serenity nodded. "And, you helped, thank you, but...still, it's really a miracle." She beamed widely down as she picked her head up to look at her stomach. "And now, I can't imagine wanting to do anything more than I want to push this little one out in a few cycles."

"Oh, this kid of ours, going to be beautiful," Endymion said softly, letting Serenity's feet go and creeping up on the bed, laying down next to his wife-to-be. "I mean, you and me, our genes, combining? It's not even fair to the rest of the galaxy. Boy, girl, doesn't matter." Endymion reached over and patted Serenity's stomach.

"As long as he...or she gets your brain," Serenity mused.

"Oh, your brain is fine," Endymion insisted, coming over to kiss her left temple. "Five days. Five more days, and we'll be together forever, in every way that we can be."

Serenity reached over to wrap her left arm around his shoulders. "I can't wait. It's going to feel so much better when it's official."

Endymion got up onto his knees, looking down at Serenity from above. "Oh, uh, I'll be out of the palace for a little bit this afternoon. Actually heading out soon, I'll be back before dinner."

"What's up?" Serenity asked, picking her head up and using her right elbow to prop herself up.

"Oh, the usual," Endymion said with a dismissive little wave of his hand. "Uh, trade disputes, taxation, uh...blah blah blah, mundane doesn't even begin to describe it, but I have to get experience with it." He slunk off the bed into a standing position. "If I say any more than that, it'd bore you." He began casually walking around the bed, heading for the bedroom door.

"Then bore me."

Endymion froze mid-step, foot up in the air slightly, a small chill running through him at these three simple words. He simply stood there for a moment, then turned to Serenity. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm serious," Serenity pressed, getting up into a full sitting position. "I've been thinking lately, Endy, and...look. In a few days, I'll be the Princess of the Earth-Moon Kingdom. And you'll be it's Prince. So, really...we're both in the same position. We're both...on the same level. So, me trying to insulate myself from all the...the mundane, maybe it's not right. Maybe I need to share in some of that. I was thinking about what you said a while ago, about how you're preparing to be King, and...well, I'm going to be Queen too. And I have to accept the things that come with that, so, whatever it is that you're doing, I want to hear about it."

"S-Serenity," Endymion said, feeling his armpits start to sweat a bit. "Don't be silly, I...my presence in your life insulates you from all that. You don't have to think about those kinds of things because I'm here! That's how this works, that's...it's a perfectly fine arrangement for royals! I don't need to 'share' any sort of burden, or anything, I'm perfectly happy with it!"

"W...well, Endy, I…" Serenity swallowed a little lump in her throat. "...it's not just that." She gestured over at the Prince. "I know, I know that you're far better equipped to handle the duties of the throne than me, and I'm grateful for that, but...it's…" she grimaced. "I don't like being left out."

"Left out?" Endymion repeated, clasping his hands together in front of him.

"We've known each other for years, we've been close for years, and...this is really the first time that I've felt like there's a part of your life that...I'm being blocked out of, and I don't like it." She frowned a bit. "Yes, obviously, I don't read the same books that you read, I could never read most of the things that you do, but...I mean, I'd still be there with you when you were reading. All this time away from the palace, no idea where you are or what you're doing, I don't like that. I don't want that. I want to be a part of your life, even if I...even if I can't actually involve myself in it, I want to know about it. If I get a little bored by it, so be it."

Endymion's head sunk down a bit to his left, looking down at the floor, the gears in his head cranking about. "S...Serenity...I…"

"I don't like this idea of you having this...whole other part of your life that you feel like you have to keep away from me," she continued. "I like that less than I like being a little bored. So, let's be a real couple. If these things you're doing are important enough that you need to take time to do them, then...then I care." She gave a faint little smile.

Endymion sucked in a deep breath, going red in the face. He turned away from Serenity, putting his hands at his sides. "Oh, well...Serenity, that's a really nice thing for you to say."

She nodded at his back. "So...lay it on me. Trade disputes, taxation, paint drying, whatever it is, I want to hear it!"

"Well...sweetie, you know I'd just love to, but…" he glanced over at the door, almost as if he was pondering making a break for it. His brain scrambled to come up with something he could say. Something that would satisfy her that wouldn't also be immediately proven a lie.

"Endy?"

Suddenly, he turned around to face her. "I can't tell you."

He held back a wince, just barely, at seeing her face fall at these words. He hated to see her look so hurt, knowing that she was sensitive to even the slightest provocation, but he didn't have enough time for anything else.

"What?" she asked, raising her eyebrows up her forehead slightly.

"It's not a question of...of want to," Endymion insisted, mentally beating himself up for not having a more elaborate falsehood ready just in case. But he had never imagined that Serenity, of all people, would be so insistent about learning the details of royal politics. Now, he was stuck. "It's a question of...can I, and I can't go into more detail than I already have. Not yet."

Serenity blinked her big eyes a few times, mouth opening slightly in confusion. "Why?"

"W-well...these matters that I'm handling, or in some cases the...the old cases that I'm reviewing, they pertain to Earth specifically. The things that Kunzite are teaching me, some of them are private Earth matters." He ignored the sense of dread building in his chest, knowing that he had no choice but to continue on. "Things that shouldn't be disclosed to just anyone, and...and certainly not the Princess of another Kingdom. It's...well...it'd be viewed as a security violation to go into specifics with someone outside the circle of knowledge."

Serenity's face was wrinkled in utter shock at this proclamation. "I...you're serious?"

Endymion nodded stiffly. "I'm afraid so. T-that's why...that's one of the reasons why I'm so vague when talking to you about it, I have to be."

"But...but we're a couple!" Serenity protested, looking at Endymion as if he had just sprouted a second head. "Surely they'd understand, I...in a few days I'm going to be Princess of the Earth just as much as I am Princess of the Moon, surely that qualifies me!"

"Yes. Yes, in a few days, you'll be Princess of Earth," Endymion agreed. "In a few days. Not...not today, not right now. You see?"

There was a most uneasy silence, filling the entire room, suffocating everything for several beats. Endymion almost felt pained physically from the utter confusion that Serenity was clearly experiencing.

"I'm sorry, I...look, it doesn't matter at all!" Endymion insisted. "In a few days, we'll be married officially, and then I can...I can tell you anything you want to hear about! So, let's just...put it on hold for a few days, and once we're married, I promise you, all the secrecy goes away!" He nodded energetically. "Okay? It's not my decision, I...it's just what I've been told to do."

"But...but it _is_ your decision," Serenity protested softly. "I...how would anyone even find out if you told me things? What, you think I'd...pass it along to my mother and we'd use it against you?"

"No! No, no, I...of course not, I just...I want to follow the rules here," Endymion said. "I know you wouldn't...tell anyone, but given that it's just a few more days, I'd prefer to stick to protocol."

Serenity still looked rather shocked, Endymion eager to extract himself from that befuddled, accusing, hurt gaze.

"A-after the wedding, I'll be as open about my activities as you'd like me to, I promise," Endymion said quickly, pointing over to the door. "I actually have to go now, I'm very sorry, if it was up to me...t-then..well, yes."

He quickly spun towards the door, marching towards it, feeling Serenity's glare on the back of his head.

"

"I was _not_ ready for her to say that," Endymion mumbled into his hands, leaning forward into a concrete wall, forehead resting on the surface. His eyes were closed, face lined with stress wrinkles.

He and his most trusted guardian were standing a few steps into a thin, dirty alleyway between two tall buildings, the sidewalk just maybe five paces away to their right. Other than a few dumpsters and garbage bags laying about, it was vacated, just a long lonely stretch of cement and concrete.

"Get your head off of that wall, it's disgusting here," Kunzite recommended. "And put your hat back on, they could be here any time."

Endymion obliged, turning around so that his back was leaning up against it, also placing his top hat back atop his head.

"You should have had a story ready," Kunzite reprimanded. "If you had told me that this was a concern, I could have come up with one for you."

"I didn't think it was a concern, she...she seemed completely happy with the way things were, I...I started spending more time with her, giving her more attention, being a little more...aggressive with her, and she was fine!" He shook his head. "Can you imagine, Serenity of all people, suddenly actually _wanting_ to hear about the mundanity of being a royal?!"

"Is it going to be a problem?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion gave a shaky little shrug with his shoulders. "I...I could tell, she was hurt when I said that to her. I didn't know what else to do, I couldn't...I racked my brain, trying to come up with something that would be good enough, I'm sure there were countless things I could have said, but...I just couldn't find one." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Okay, I'll prepare myself better going forward, we'll be married in a few days, and...she doesn't hold grudges, I know her, give me a cycle and she'll have forgotten that this ever happened. It won't be as big of a deal after the wedding anyway, I'll be spending much less time away."

Kunzite nodded, then turned his head to the left. "Alright, she's coming."

Endymion stepped away from the wall, looking down the long thin path, seeing Mimete flanked by two large bodyguards, strolling down towards them.

"It...it just didn't feel good, you know?" Endymion said, squaring his body up towards the approaching trio. "Hurting her feelings like that, over something like this." He sighed. "But I'll get through it."

The two waited in silence, Kunzite's stance wide and ready to take one of a large number of actions to protect the Prince if necessary. Endymion pushed distractions regarding Serenity out of his mind for a moment.

Mimete clapped as she came up to the two. "Alright, boys!" She reached back behind her right side, tapping a leather case with her hand. "You two made some big promises last time we met. I have to say, that little sample you gave us, woo, I haven't been able to sleep well. Ninety-nine percent!" She bobbed her head around. "I've got a bet with one of my lieutenants on whether or not you've actually got two libras of the stuff, he thinks that little crystal was it."

"Two point two?" Endymion asked, lifting his right hand up slowly and pointing at the leather case. "Let's see it."

"Oh, come on, you think I'd ever rip off you guys?!" Mimete said with a dry little laugh. "You're my best supplier, I'm sure as shit not getting stuff anywhere close to this good from anyone else!" She turned to her right-side guard. "Toss it over."

Bending down slightly, he opened the clasp atop the case and held the opening out towards the two, exposing neat rows of creds within. He slid the case along the ground over in front of Kunzite. The Earth general bent down, hands rummaging through the case. He warily glanced behind him, out to the sidewalk, every few seconds.

"So, when's the well running dry?" Mimete asked. "How long before you run out of product?"

"At the current rate, not in our lifetimes," Endymion answered.

"I plan on living a long time, are you sure about that?" Mimete countered.

"Actually, I was rather wondering how much _you_ can take on," Endymion began. "I'm trying to make some _real_ money here, Mimete. And I think you are too. So, two libras a meeting…" he gave a casual little shrug. "Are we really content with using a scalpel instead of a sword?"

"So...you want me to take more of your product?" Mimete asked, Kunzite standing up and quickly taking a few steps back towards a green garbage sack on the ground. He kneeled down, opening the mouth, releasing a particularly offensive stench but revealing a paper-wrapped package. He picked it up.

"If you can handle it, we can deliver it," Endymion insisted. "The only question is how much can you handle?"

Kunzite slid the package across the floor, dirtying the paper as it cruised across the filthy ground and coming to a stop in front of Mimete. Her left bodyguard picked it up, opened the edge, and pulled a small reader out of his chest pocket.

"Our organization is quite large," Mimete said. "We have a presence in most large cities on this planet, actually. We could, most certainly take on more Imperium, assuming that future batches are as pure as what you promised."

"Ninety-nine point oh-one," the bodyguard read off the reader.

"Oooooohhhhhh," Mimete moaned, almost orgasmically. "You boys are absolute wizards! How do you DO IT?!" she shouted the last line, perhaps unwisely.

Kunzite put a hand out towards her, indicating wordlessly that she should calm down. "How much more?" he asked.

"You bring...you bring ten libras next meet," Mimete suggested. "Ten, I can distribute that much in six days." She cleared her throat, nodding. "But I'll be paying with gold. Can't lug all that money around a slum."

Endymion nodded.

"Alright...come find me in Spokai," she instructed, pointing over at Endymion. "Spokai's my next spot, come find me there, we'll meet up." She grinned widely as Endymion and Kunzite started to slowly back down the alley, back out towards the sidewalk. "Tuxedo Mask, you and me, we're gonna make a LOT of money!"

As the two retreated back out into the relative safety of a sparsely-populated walk, Kunzite gave an annoyed look over his shoulder. "She really should learn to keep her voice down when we're so close to—"

The violent, booming sound of a plasma weapon being discharged cut off the rest of Kunzite's sentence. Clearly coming from the alley the two had just left, Kunzite reflexively grabbed the Prince by the collar and shoved him against the concrete wall, affording him as much protection as he could on short notice. As Kunzite withdrew his own small firearm, a second blast rang through the air, again from the alley.

"Stay behind me," Kunzite ordered, pressing himself up against the wall right next to Endymion, closer to the alley entrance than the Prince, and quickly shuffled along the wall over to the opening. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small mirror panel, holding it up to his left, using the small reflective tool to see around the corner and into the alley.

Endymion carefully craned his head over to look at the mirror, adjusting his position so he'd be properly positioned to see. Mimete was standing there, plasma pistol drawn, both of her bodyguards laying face-first on the disgusting ground of the alley. She was bending down to pick up the paper package.

"What in the…" Endymion muttered. Both of the men on the floor had large, obvious wounds on their backs, no doubt the targets of both gun discharges just moments before.

"Sorry, boys," Mimete muttered, the two of them just barely able to hear her over the surrounding din of panic as nearby passerbys fled the sound of gunfire. One of the men made a little groaning noise and suddenly lifting his left arm up. Mimete quickly fired at his head, blasting a burning hole in it, removing whatever little life was still in him at that point. Endymion winced at the display.

"But you can't work with the same people for too long in this business," she concluded. "Gotta keep it rotating."

For no immediately obvious reason, she fired a fourth blast into the other body, seemingly just to assure that her bodyguard was actually dead, and then turned around and sprinted off, holstering the weapon and holding the package under her right arm.

Kunzite pocketed the mirror, turning to Endymion, who looked vaguely confused and scared, mouth hanging open. Slowly, the Prince turned his head to look up at his charge.

"We're leaving," Kunzite said simply, putting his hand behind Endymion's back and pushing him off the wall.

"Yes, we are," Endymion agreed breathlessly, going into a fast walk down the sidewalk, away from the carnage, all too aware that they were the only ones in the area, as everyone else had vacated immediately on hearing the gunfire.


	12. The Burden of the Double Life

Chapter 12: The Burden of the Double Life

Endymion chucked the small, flat stone down onto the surface of the lake, spinning it out of his fingers, watching it bounce along the water, each bounce leaving a small little ripple behind.

"I sincerely hope we're on the same page here," Kunzite said, standing just to Endymion's right, arms folded over his chest, gaze directed at the Prince.

Endymion hesitated, but nodded. "Yes, yes, I...I understand, it's just…" He bent down to find another small rock that served his purpose. "It's frustrating, is all. We spent all this time developing a...relationship with her, we had her on the hook to take our product in bulk, so...it's frustrating."

"There are many other Imperium smugglers out there," Kunzite assured his charge. "And most of them are...probably not as mentally unstable as Mimete."

Endymion slowly turned around to look over his left shoulder, looking into a thick, healthy-looking forest of trees. Right above the top of the treeline, he could see the roof of the Earth Palace, towering above everything around it.

"Killing two of your henchmen out in broad daylight?" Kunzite recalled, turning back to look at the small lake. Endymion chucked the rock, using a sidearm delivery to get the stone to skip. "Opposed to, say, your den, nice and private, no public disturbance, no chance of getting caught, easy corpse disposal. No, just...right in an alleyway, right next to the street." Kunzite frowned, Endymion putting his hands on his hips. "And, not for any reason, even."

"Well, we don't know that," Endymion countered.

"You heard what she said," Kunzite said, face wrinkling a bit. "Just did it because...because it was time to swap out bodyguards? Because you have to kill your underlings from time to time just...just because?" He shook his head. "She had to know that we were still right there, that we'd hear, probably see it too...what is that, a message? Trying to scare us? Is that why she just had to do it right then and there?"

"Okay, okay, let's think about this before we do anything drastic," Endymion said, putting his hands up on his forehead, balling them into fists and resting his head on the knuckles.

"You said you understood," Kunzite reminded him, looking quite stern. "We can't work with that woman anymore, Your Highness. It's not an option."

"I, I just, I don't want to throw this opportunity away if it's not absolutely necessary," Endymion said. "Just, let's explore this for a second, she...she killed two guys who she can easily replace, probably, right? She's a big shot Imperium smuggler, getting two big strong guys who can protect her is nothing!" He put his hands on his chest, turning to Kunzite. "Can't replace us! Nobody else in the universe has what we have, if she wants our product she can't do anything to us. So, maybe we're looking at this the wrong way...I get it, she's not a good person, not all there upstairs, but she can afford our Imperium and clearly wants what we have."

"If only she was sane, you might have a point," Kunzite replied. "But, she's clearly not, so we can't depend on things like logic to dictate anything when it comes to her."

Endymion danced his head back and forth a little bit, an unsure look on his face. "Admittedly, she's not the picture of mental health, but...I mean, how can you make it in the Imperium black market without being capable of _some_ degree of rational thought?! Her operation is decently-sized, she's been around for awhile, maybe...maybe we should give her a little credit for being sane enough to realize that you don't want to kill the people who are bringing you the highest-margin commodity in the galaxy and are literally printing money for you."

Kunzite sighed. "Your Majesty. Please. We can _not_ continue working with her. We just found out first-hand what she does to someone when she thinks she's been working with them too long. Do we really need to find out _how_ long is too long?"

Endymion pursed his lips tightly, squeezing his eyes shut. "T-technically, we're working _with_ her, and those guys were working _for_ her—"

"Endymion!" Kunzite interrupted, serving to highlight just how exasperated and insistent the Earth general was by cutting the Prince off mid-sentence.

"Okay, okay, you're right, I…" Endymion put his palm up to cover his mouth, craning his head back to look straight up into the skies. "...you're right, I...what do we do?"

"Well, working with her going forward is out of the question, obviously," Kunzite said.

"Alright, so, we just no-show the next meeting?" Endymion questioned. "And then we've got a pissed off, mentally unstable Imperium Kingpin probably devoting all of her resources to hunting us down so she can kill us?" He shrugged. "What if we went to the next meeting and you, uh, you know…" He raised his right hand up in front of him and curled his index finger a few times, miming firing a gun.

"Betting on me being able to draw and fire on at least three people before any one of them are able to draw and fire, it's no guarantee," Kunzite mused, putting his hand up to his chin in thought. "If that's the plan, you can't be there for it, too much risk."

"If I'm not there, she'll realize something is up," Endymion reasoned. "Alright, suppose we placed...some sort of device in the Imperium, say, an explosive device. We make the deal, and after we go our separate ways, we detonate it."

"Too many things could go wrong," Kunzite replied. "They could find the explosive, and then we're really in a bad position. For all we know, they're planning on making their move against us at the next meet, not a horrible idea to do it right after we give them ten whole libras. And then, the nature of using an explosive, other people can get caught in it."

"Right, right," Endymion agreed. He looked about the lakeside little gravel patch the two were in the middle of, almost as if he was searching for a solution to their problems. "Well, we know she's headed to Spokai, maybe...maybe we could resolve this _before_ the meeting, not during."

"Spokai is a large city," Kunzite pointed out. "Just knowing that she's going there isn't necessarily going to help us. Not with the limited time we have."

"Nephrite's network could locate her," Endymion said, kneeling down to look for another appropriate stone to toss. "That's what it's for, I'm sure he has plenty of spies in Spokai. We find where she's hiding, and then you take her out."

Kunzite tugged at the front of his gray uniform. "Far from a sound plan," he said. "Especially given I'll only have a few days to pull it off, but...I suppose it's the best we can do." He gave a reluctant little nod. "I'll put Nephrite on it."

"Wait, wait!" Endymion said, putting his hand out towards his general as Kunzite was about to turn around, standing up and abandoning his search for a rock to toss. "Maybe...maybe it doesn't have to be you."

Kunzite turned back to Endymion, folding his arms in front of him. "Go on."

"What if...what if we turned her in, so to speak?" Endymion suggested. "Had Nephrite find her base of operations, then sent in an anonymous tip to the agency? They'd be all over it, especially right now, you know they're just chomping at the bit to get after whoever is putting our stuff on the market."

Kunzite chewed on his cheek for a moment, putting his hands on his hips, then looked up towards the sky. "They'd probably put over a hundred agents on the ground if they got a tip like that, she'd never escape." He gave a slow nod. "That...that's not bad at all."

"We don't even have to worry about it, let the agency handle her," Endymion said, reaching over to give Kunzite a slap on the back. "Have it taken care of while you're sitting in your room reading, or sleeping."

"I'd be a little concerned about having someone who's been in contact with us so much in agency custody," Kunzite mused. "She'll be facing a life imprisonment on _The Savery_ , I imagine she'll be giving up anything and everything she knows to try to get it reduced. It's not unthinkable that she'll be able to tell them something that leads to us."

Endymion nodded, forehead wrinkling.

"And suppose the agency finds her, but...can't find any evidence to put her away. Say she's managed to cover everything up and they can't find anything to stick her. Again, not likely, but not impossible either."

"So, what you're saying is we need this to end in a firefight," Endymion said suddenly. "We can't let the agency take her alive, and we can't let her skate the charges, so...we have to make sure that she's in a bodybag at the end of it."

"That would work," Kunzite agreed. "Yes, if she doesn't survive the encounter, that solves all of our problems. Would also mop up her lieutenants and underlings, cut down on the potential loose ends, reduce the number of people who might suspect us and seek revenge." He looked up. "Only issue I can see would be people getting caught in the crossfire."

"Uh-huh," Endymion said, hand up to his chin.

"Imagine if she's holed up with...twenty or thirty of her underlings, and you've got maybe a hundred heavily armed agency soldiers raiding the place. That's a lot of plasma flying."

Endymion's head tilted up a bit, and his left hand suddenly flew over to rap against Kunzite's chest. "W-what if...what if we made it happen during the wedding?" he suggested.

"Hm?" Kunzite's eyebrow raised up.

"During the wedding, nobody's going to be out on the streets, everyone will be at watch parties or at home watching it." He tapped his index finger against Kunzite's chest a few times. "Yes, that's it, we arrange for the raid to happen during the wedding."

"So...you propose that I miss your wedding so I can be there to make sure the raid gets violent?" Kunzite asked. "I don't believe I'll be able to make an adequate excuse to King Kasios for that."

"No no no, you're not missing my wedding," Endymion insisted, withdrawing his hand and shaking his finger at Kunzite. "Not for anything. No, we...we'll find a way to spark a firefight without being there."

"From thousands of dolichos away?" Kunzite questioned. "That...could prove challenging."

"How hard can it be?" Endymion questioned. "Like you said, it's probably going to be...over a hundred people, all of them heavily armed. Should be a fuse that lights real easy."

"Alright, I'll start on this," Kunzite said. "You get back to the palace and handle things with Serenity."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Right." He turned around, again looking up at the top of the palace. "You know, Kunzite, I think I'd actually rather we switch places on this one."

"I don't think that's possible, Your Highness," Kunzite said dryly.

"I know," Endymion said with a small sigh. "I know."

"

Endymion rubbed the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "Security...a matter of...a matter of security." He began to nervously clench his hands together in front of him. "A matter of...galactic security?" He squinted. "Inter...inter-galactic security?" He shook his head. "Earth security?"

He gave his head a violent shake, frustrated. He looked back at the door to his bedroom, right in front of him, just waiting for him to prompt it to open and admit him. But he was still working up the nerve for it.

"Okay...it'll be completely irrelevant in a few days...completely irrelevant in...a couple days?" He pursed his lips together hard. "Couple days...few days...umm…"

He slumped over a bit in frustration, putting his hand up against the wall to the right of the door, leaning up against it, muttering under his breath.

"Okay, Serenity, I was in a hurry earlier, I think maybe I...worded things a little harsh," he whispered to himself. "Phrased things...phrased things a little...a little harsh? Mean?"

With a resigned moan, he reached forward and pressed his fingers into a small recess by the door, causing it to slide open. Taking a deep breath in, he passed into the room, reaching back to tap the wall on the other side to close the door behind him.

"Okay, I…"

The Prince turned to his left to look at his large bed. Sure enough, his fiancee was there, curled up atop the blankets, body turned away from the door. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the rather immature display of a cold shoulder on her part, although he reminded himself that she was at least somewhat justified.

"H-hey," Endymion said, resolve weakening a bit now that he was actually in the moment and not just rehearsing it. "Um, c-can we talk? I'd like to...clear the air, maybe." He slowly approached his bed. "I think maybe I—"

"Well, according to you, you're not able to say anything to me until after we're married, so what's the point in talking?" Serenity asked, voice a little cold and tinny. Endymion had hardly ever heard her sound so unhappy, and hearing it made his muscles clench up.

"Hey, hey, you know that's not true, that's not what I meant," Endymion protested, trying to keep his tone gentle. "Look, I…I'm under a lot of stress lately, and...and I was in a hurry earlier, and...I didn't mean to sound so harsh. Mean." He winced. "There's just a lot of things going on right now, and...I just don't want to make it more complicated than it already is."

"I wonder," Serenity started. "Do you consider the location of the panic chamber in your room a 'private Earth matter' that people outside of the Earth royal family aren't supposed to know?" She slowly rolled over and unfurled herself, looking over at Endymion with a flat, lifeless stare. "Because I certainly know where that is, is that a problem?"

"Uh…" Endymion withered back a bit under her gaze. "...w-well, no, that's...that's different. The panic chamber in my bedroom is my business, it's my decision who knows about that, completely up to me."

"What about the Book of Terra?" Serenity questioned, sitting up a bit, still staring at Endymion with that slightly dead-eyed gaze. "You used to read me stories from that book every night. Isn't that book a 'private Earth matter'?"

"No, no, that's…" he gave his head a dismissive shake. "Those stories can be found in every bookstore on this planet, just different interpretations, slight variations, the Book of Terra just has the...the original versions, that's—"

"Endymion," Serenity intoned, silencing her husband-to-be immediately. "Do you actually, honestly believe that there's _any_ chance at all, any possibility, that I might actually take anything that you tell me and...use it to hurt the Earth? Relay it to my mother, tell my friends, I...what are you even concerned about? Our Kingdoms are going to be brought together in a few days, why would I even want to...it doesn't make any sense."

Endymion gave a reluctant nod. "I know, I know, I...don't think you'd do anything like that, obviously."

"Not as obviously as I thought," Serenity said ruefully.

"Okay, okay...Serenity, I'm just trying to not complicate things." Endymion sat down on the edge of his bed, turning his body to look at her. "There are people in my father's regime who wouldn't approve of people outside of the...the family and the chain of command being told about these things, just—"

"Endymion, just stop," Serenity said, holding her hand out towards him, palm towards him. "Whoever it is that might have an objection with you sharing things with the woman that is about to be your wife, you and I both know they'd never find out. What, you think they have...recording devices in your bedroom?" She shook her head. "The only person who's making decisions on what you can or can't tell me is you. Stop trying to hide behind things, just...just tell me the truth. Just say that you think I'm not smart enough to comprehend whatever it is you're doing."

Endymion's mouth fell open slightly. "W-what?"

"Well, come on, that's what it is, isn't it?" Serenity sat up straight now, crossing her arms over her chest. "You don't think I'm smart enough to understand politics, so you don't want to waste the time to try to explain it to me." She gave a curt little shrug.

"No, no, no," Endymion said, gaining a bit of strength in his voice, putting his hand out towards Serenity, firmly shaking it. "Serenity, no, that is absolutely _not_ what I think."

"I get it, okay, I'm supposed to just...sit around, look pretty, raise our children, keep the bed warm, keep my nose out of the affairs of the palace. That's probably the image you had in your head of me, and maybe I understand why you might feel that way."

"Serenity, stop," Endymion said, almost pleadingly. "I don't think any of that, I have never thought any of that, not at all."

Serenity sighed, laying her head back on the purple pillows at the head of the bed, arms still crossed. "I don't know if you know this, Endymion, but...you've been acting strange lately. All this time away, not willing to tell me what it's about, I...two years ago, not even two years ago, you tried to sneak me down into the King's Vault so I could touch Draco's staff. Remember how mad your father was when you got caught?"

Endymion sighed, putting his hand up to his forehead. "Serenity, I was drunk and I was trying to impress you."

"Well, either way, you've probably done...hundreds of things over the last few years with me that you probably shouldn't have been doing with the Princess of another Kingdom, but...you did them! You did them because you trusted me, what...what changed? What happened?" She reached up, grabbing the upper corner of the top blanket and beginning to pull it down, squirming a bit so she could get it out from underneath her. "D-don't answer that, just...I guess in a few days it won't matter."

"It won't!" Endymion said, trying to sound energetic and enthused. "I promise, I...you have my word." He petered out quickly, so taken aback he was by Serenity's little tirade that he couldn't quite manage to deflect.

"Don't shut me out," Serenity said as she wormed underneath the top covers, continuing to fidget about to remove her nightgown. "I'll let you have your little excuse for a few more days, I guess...where it came from, I don't know. But once we're married, we're in this together. And I won't accept you trying to shut me out parts of your life. I don't like that. Do not shut me out."

Endymion gave a remorseful little look over at her as she laid down for the night, shocked that she had managed to talk him into a corner like this. He didn't even know what to say. In fact, his brain kept arriving at the conclusion that the best thing he could do is not say anything.

"I, uh…" Endymion swallowed down hard, slowly standing up. "I can...spend the night in one of the guest bedrooms," he offered slowly.

"Don't be silly," Serenity muttered, sweeping the nightgown out from underneath the blanket, down onto the floor below her, letting it pool on the carpet. "It's your bed."

With a muted sigh, Endymion began to unbutton his waistcoat.

"

Jadeite gave a sour little sneer, leaning back heavily against the heavily-cushioned red chair he had taken refuge on. The holo-projector on the short, squat table several paces in front of him was displaying a rich, colorful, detailed video of a large, rich, green field of grass with white chalk lines marking it at various intervals. The shot of the video was quite wide, meaning that the twenty or so people who were running around on this grassy pitch were rather small from Jadeite's point of view, the round white ball they were chasing around even smaller.

"I swear, they _always_ fall for that!" Jadeite snapped, watching three of the individuals depicted on the video feed, all of them wearing tan outfits, fall into formation along the right side of the field. "Every time, they turn their whole left flank into tissue paper, pathetic!" He looked up to his left, over at Nephrite, who was standing a few steps away, large iron dumbbells in either hand, slowly lifting them up in front of his chest before dropping them to his sides. "If they just ran that feint every time, I really think they'd give up over twenty points."

Nephrite rolled his eyes, a gesture that Jadeite didn't notice as he had turned back to watch the projector. "You should really be coaching a handball team, with all of your groundbreaking strategic ideas," he said dryly.

"Yes, thank you, I really should," Jadeite said, watching as one of the men picked up the white ball in his arms and began running to the left with it.

The door to the room opened, Jadeite not even looking up as Kunzite entered. With a quick glance at the projector, the elder Earth general looked over at Nephrite.

"Hey, old man!" Jadeite interjected on noticing Kunzite in his peripheral vision. "Pull up a seat? The game's crap so far, but you know, any chance to watch Heracles defend the midfield is worthwhile."

"Maybe later," Kunzite said dismissively, not taking his eyes off Nephrite. "Can I have a word in private?"

Nephrite, turning to look at his fellow general, slowly kneeled down to set the large weights on the floor on either side of him. He rose back up, then slowly walked over towards the door that Kunzite had just emerged from. His white-haired counterpart turned and walked alongside him, both of them leaving Jadeite to the handball match.

The two went out into the empty hallway, stretching off in both directions.

"What's going on?" Nephrite asked quickly, after a quick glance to either side proved that nobody was around.

"I need you to help me with something," Kunzite replied. "I can't tell you how I know this, and you can't ever ask me."

"Alright, who are we beating up?" Nephrite immediately asked.

"N-no, actually, not that," Kunzite corrected, a small smirk playing across his face nevertheless. "I have some intel that I've come across, I need your network to confirm it and narrow it down without alerting the target. You've got eyes in Spokai?"

"Oh, yes, quite a few of them actually," Nephrite responded. "What are we looking for?"

"I have reason to believe an Imperium smuggling Kingpin is about to show up in Spokai in the next few days, hole up there for a bit." Kunzite reached down towards his left hip, reaching into his side pocket and pulling out a small slip of paper. "I need to know where she's hiding."

"She?" Nephrite repeated.

Kunzite showed the slip of paper to Nephrite after unfolding it. It was a crude, yet adequately detailed sketch of a female's face. "Five point twenty-one pesses tall, I'd say a hundred and thirty-two libras heavy."

Nephrite took the drawing in his right hand, staring at it. " _This_ is an Imperium smuggler?"

Kunzite gave a knowing nod. "Yes, I...she doesn't exactly look the part, admittedly. But I'm quite sure, she commands a large and widespread distribution network. She'll only be in town for maybe half a cycle, so I need to know where she's taking up residence as soon as possible. Once your guys find out, they report it to you, and you tell me. Nobody else."

Nephrite nodded. "Understood."

Kunzite clapped his hand on Nephrite's shoulder. "Thank you."

"

The night before. Hardly half a day left in his unmarried life. In the grand scheme of things, not even a tiny fraction of a tertia left before the two Kingdoms would be united into one. Endymion had always thought that, in the days leading up to his marriage, he would be all-consumed by thoughts of it, filled up entirely with happiness and anticipation.

As the Earth Prince stood out in the backyard area, just behind the Holy Gobekli Temple, head leaned back to look up at the night sky, he had to regretfully acknowledge that things hadn't been quite that clean.

In the last couple days, Serenity had remained noticeably icy, still clearly hurt from his snubbing. He reflected on the fact that they'd only be getting married once, only one opportunity to have everything be perfect for the woman that he loved, and that by any reasonable measure that opportunity had already been squandered.

And yet, though part of him was consumed with this sobering thought, he also couldn't take his mind off of his other interests at the moment. He supposed that the significance of recent events warranted such thoughts, given that his life might very well hang in the balance, but it was unthinkable as recently as a couple cycles ago that he'd ever be thinking about anything other than this wedding on the day before.

Conflicted thoughts batting around inside his brain, he just stood there, hands in his pockets, looking at the stars, seeking out the assorted constellations that he knew existed up above.

"Your Highness!"

Endymion spun around, looking up the stone path that trailed up to the rear entrance to the Temple. Standing there, a few dozen paces up that path away from him, were Serenity, Kunzite, and High Priest Pious.

"Taking in the night sky?" Pious asked. He was a old man, perhaps nearing his seventies, bald, tall, and thin, wearing white robes with yellow trimming. The most revered holy man on Earth, having served at Gobekli since he was a teenager, of course it would have to be him who conducted the marriage. Nobody else would do.

"I think I saw Pluto tonight, actually," Endymion said, a weak smile on his face. "Rare treat."

"Well, wait a bit and it'll be gone," Pious suggested. "The whole rest of the galaxy is obsessed with finding out what's in deep space, beyond our solar system...personally, I'd be interested in finding out what's happening on Pluto. A whole planet, disappearing and reappearing at random like that? What's going on with that?"

"Well, maybe one day," Endymion said, slowly meandering up the path. "So, I'm ready to retire for the night."

"I'm sure you're familiar with tradition when it comes to members of the royal family getting married in this temple?" Pious asked. "I understand, it can seem counterintuitive to sleep in separate rooms, but—"

"Oh, not at all," Endymion said dismissively, waving his hand up at the High Priest. Truth be told, having a wall between the two of them for a night wouldn't feel that different from the way things had been the last couple days. "Just, you'll have to remind me, the man sleeps in the...east room, and the woman the west room, right?"

"Correct you are," Pious replied. "When you're ready, I'll lead you and Princess Serenity to the chambers, and let you two share final words in private. The next time you two will see each other after that, you'll be walking down the aisle."

With that, Serenity turned around, facing the temple, putting her back to Endymion as he approached. Endymion winced, but tried to play it off.

"Very well, then, let's go," Pious said, turning around as well and following a couple steps behind Serenity.

As Endymion passed by Kunzite's stout, tall figure, his most trusted guardian leaned up close to the Prince's ear. "We're set up," he whispered. Endymion nodded before stepping around him.

"

The bedroom chamber was incredibly small in comparison to the bedroom that Endymion knew so well. You would have barely been able to fit two of Endymion's beds in this room. He almost found it suffocating, the walls and low ceiling threatening to crush him, it could feel like. And yet, small those the room may have been, it was most certainly ornate, gold and platinum trimmings along all the walls, gold statuettes on the posts at each corner of the bed, a pearl chandelier hanging just a couple of finger lengths from the ceiling.

Suddenly, a square section of the western wall slid downward, exposing a portal into a nearly identical chamber, except the walls were tinged white opposed to his being tinged purple. Serenity, wearing a pure white nightgown, turned towards the opening, holding a wooden bowl in her hands.

Wordlessly, she went up to the portal, presenting the bowl out towards Endymion. He stepped forward cautiously, taking it from her, looking down at the mouthful of a blue liquid pooled at the bottom of it. Taking a deep breath, he lifted the bowl to his lips and tipped it over, pouring the concoction into his mouth and swallowing it.

As he did this, Serenity stood there, a small smile frozen on her face. Endymion wanted to say something, but knew that the ritual took precedence for now. He looked down at the pillow at the top of his bed, seeing a purple little bulb of glass on it. He picked it up, unscrewing the top and pouring the clear liquid within into the bowl.

After the bulb was drained, he passed the bowl back over to Serenity, who took it and downed the contents similarly. With a powerful little gulp, she had taken the contents into her stomach, and gave Endymion a nod.

"Good night," she said, reaching forward towards the wall to the right of the portal.

"W-wait," Endymion said, putting his hand out towards her, causing her to pause before closing the wall up. "Serenity, just...hold on."

She slowly dropped her hand back to her side.

"Serenity, I know I haven't been myself lately, and I know it's hurt you in ways that I never intended. I've...I've been struggling with some things, and I think I've let it affect my relationship with you, and that's not okay. So, I want to say that...I'm so sorry about how I've been. But I'm going to change things, I'll...all this time away from the palace, it's done, I promise. I've talked to my generals, we're getting all that cleaned up, we're working things out so I don't have to be gone for so long. I...you're the most important thing to me. The most important thing in my life. And I'm sorry that things have gotten to the point where I've let things get between us. But, I promise, from now on, I'm going to involve you in everything, as much as you want. From now on, what concerns me concerns you."

Serenity just stood there, listening intently to every word Endymion had to say.

"You're my Princess, from now on, and if you tell me that you care about the things I'm doing, then I want to involve you in those things. I promise, it's going to be different from now on. Just...I'm sorry. Please, forgive me, I haven't been the best partner lately. And that's not who I want to be." He nodded. "That's all I want to say. Good night, sleep well, and...from here on out, we're in this together."

Serenity gave a nod. "Okay. Alright. Thank you."

"Good night, I love you." Endymion sat down on the edge of the bed, watching as Serenity reached forward, closing the portal between the two small rooms.

"

Endymion tugged down his purple ornate tunic, finding it just a little uncomfortable and ill-fitting compared to his usual perfectly-tailored outfits. He glanced down to his shoulders, spying the artificial flowers placed on either one. He then looked up at the back of Kasios's head, to his right, standing at attention.

The two were standing in an alcove to the right of the massive main chamber of the temple, waiting. The room was packed, every single seat on every single bench taken up by someone. The whole place was fragrant, smelling of lilacs, every inch of the chamber having been layered in incense earlier that morning. Deep organ music was providing the background soundtrack to the proceedings.

"Cue," Kasios said under his breath, stiffing marching out along the velvet carpet that lead from the alcove up to the altar. Endymion followed, a step behind. To his right, his four guardians stood at attention, in a line along the path they were following. He glanced at each one in turn as he passed them by.

Then, he looked up, seeing High Priest Pious waiting at the top of the altar. "Will King Kasios, ruler of the Kingdom of Earth, please present his son?" His voice boomed through the large room, despite his old age.

Kasios stopped halfway down the velvet road, turning to look at his son right behind him. "Go on."

Endymion, taking note of the absolute silence that the rest of the room had been knocked into, slowly strolled up towards the High Priest. Behind him, Kunzite, most of his focus on the ceremony, was also listening to a tiny earpiece lodged in his ear.

"Squad C and D moving into position behind the target."

"

Thirty men, heavily armored in black uniforms, with large black helmets on, each one of them holding an identical, two-handed firearm, moved in formation, covering the entire back alley that stretched across the block. Thankfully, the royal wedding had left the area mostly empty, meaning that their insertion into the area required practically no evacuation. All in all, given that there were almost a hundred agents being deployed around the block, they had managed to do it with shockingly little disturbance.

"Squad C and D have the back exits covered," the squad commander announced in his helmet.

"Squad A and B have the front covered," the speaker crackled into his ear. "Squads E and F providing backup."

Suddenly, a few of the windows on the brownstone building were thrown open, the business end of rifles being pointed out of the small openings, two or three faces peering out of each one atop the threatening weapons. Every single agent on the ground brought their own rifles to bear, pointing them at the building, ready to unleash absolute havoc when the word was given.

"Contact!" the squad commander said, bringing his weapon up to bear. "We have, maybe ten total targets, armed and dangerous!"

"Copy, we have contact in front as well!" the reply came. "Attempt to defuse, do not fire unless fired on, we want survivors to interrogate!"

"Copy," the commander said. "STAND DOWN!" he roared up at the building. "YOU ARE SURROUNDED, OUTMANNED, AND OUTGUNNED! DROP YOUR WEAPONS, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

He could feel the tension surrounding him, every single agent positioned in the back alley just a finger twitch away from firing a stream of white-hot plasma that would spark a massacre. He reached up to tap the side of his helmet, switching communication channels. "Nobody fire until the word is given!"

The two parties stood there, in a stalemate, hanging on the very edge of armageddon.

"

Serenity, wearing a pure-white dress with a yellow flower pattern symmetrically going down the entire front, proceeded past her stopped mother, heading up to the altar to take her place at Endymion's left side, both of them standing before the High Priest after a moment.

"Today, two become one," Pious began, hands folded in front of him, a golden scepter behind held up in a small stand to his left, a tall hat atop his head. "And not just here, in front of me. But everywhere around us, two become one. This entire planet, this entire Kingdom, becomes one with the Kingdom hanging just above us all, gliding in orbit. Today, as I unite the lives of Prince Endymion of Earth and Princess Serenity of the Moon, so to do I unite two mighty Kingdoms, forever tying their fates together."

Slowly, Pious reached over to the scepter, removing it from it's stand. Endymion resisted the urge to glance over his right shoulder at his father, trying to remain focused on the ceremony.

"Here, in the Holy Gobekli Temple, under the watchful eye of the Goddesses Terra and Diana, the Earth and Moon become one and the same. Of the hundreds of marriages I have carried out in my time as High Priest, none have carried the gravity of this one." He waved the tip of the scepter over Endymion's head, then moved it to wave over Serenity's.

Kunzite, ever watchful from the right side of the altar, had only one ear for Pious's ceremonial speech. The other was paying close attention to the voices in his right ear, crackling through the listening device. His right hand crept up the side of his body, towards his hip pocket, feeling the little remote within the fold of his uniform.

"I repeat, do not discharge your weapons unless fired upon!"

"

Mimete, crouched down low just beneath the closed window, slowly picked her head up, peering out at the line of agency soldiers behind the brownstone building. "Shit, shit shit!" she spat, twisting her head around to look at one of her lieutenants. "How did they find me?! I just got here!"

"No idea," the large man responded, opening up a black case on the floor, revealing a large, fat, black grenade launcher. He picked it up in his arms.

"Well, _get_ an idea!" Mimete hissed. She withdrew a much smaller, handheld weapon, a silver plasma gun, again chancing another peek up out the window. "I've been in this business for years, Cicero, _never_ been raided like this!"

A man quickly ran into the room, keeping his head ducked, a plasma rifle in his hands. "They've got all the exits covered, there's no way out!" he said in a hushed little gasp.

"Shit!" Mimete cursed again. "How many?"

"Over fifty, that we've seen," he replied. "Probably more."

She gave a raspy sigh, shaking her head. "Alright. You two, get downstairs and start flushing whatever you can down the latrine. Just get it into the pipes however you can! I've got connections, I can get out of this. Go!"

The two men didn't need to be told again, spinning around and scurrying out of the room, taking the stairs down to the first level two at a time.

Mimete hissed loudly, but then gave her head a shake. "Alright. Alright. I'll beat the rap. I'll find a way. Just...oh boy, give myself up." She shrugged. "Only way. Only way."

"

"And so, with the Goddesses Terra and Diana witnessing, I move to make this union official." Pious reached to his right, picking up a velvet pillow with a diamond-studded bracelet atop it, presenting it out to Serenity. "Princess Serenity, if you please."

The organ behind them reaching a muted crescendo, Serenity reached forward and took the bracelet. She turned to Endymion, presenting it out to him, opening the band. Endymion stuck his right arm out towards her. She slowly placed it on his wrist, covering it in the shiny, expensive, valuable piece of jewelry. After a moment's fumbling, she locked it in place.

The High Priest set the empty pillow down to his right, then picked up a second identical one, this one a necklace of sapphires. He presented this one over to Endymion. "Prince Endymion, if you please."

With steady hands, he took the blue and white necklace off the pillow, lifting it up in front of him, and then turning towards the Princess. Leaning forward, as she did the same, he wrapped it around her slender neck and began trying to fasten it behind her.

"I forgive you."

Endymion froze mid-fastening, withdrawing his head back to in front of his wife, looking down at her big blue eyes.

"H...what?" he whispered, glancing over at the High Priest out of the corner of his eyes.

"I forgive you," Serenity repeated, winking.

"O-oh…" Endymion said, slightly taken aback, but then remembering the ceremonial duty he had to carry out. "Thank you." He moved his head back around, looking over her shoulder, finishing the fastening of the necklace.

"And, it is done," Pious announced, the organ immediately halting as he tapped the floor with the butt end of his scepter. "Prince Endymion, Princess Serenity...your two lives are now one."

Endymion reached over to his left without looking, reaching his hand out towards his wife. She returned the gesture, reaching her own small hand over to take it.

Kunzite, focus on the end of the ceremony, nevertheless remained alert to the noises coming from his earpiece as he gently tapped a button on the remote in his pocket.

"

Next door to the brownstone, on the second floor of a plain white building, a window suddenly popped open, drawing the attention of the few agency soldiers close enough to see it. A plasma rifle, pointed down at the street in front of the buildings, mounted on a rotating little spinner, had its trigger squeezed by a mechanical hand. As the rifle slowly rotated, it fired down at the road. Just five rounds were launched from the weapon, five little heated charges, harmlessly hitting the concrete below, a good six paces away from anyone.

But the fuse, so desperately looking for any spark to light it, had more than enough.

With a loud bellow from the squad commander, every single agency soldier present began to pepper the brownstone with plasma charges, a loud, obnoxious, cacophonic series of sounds ringing off through the cold, crisp air of the mid-morning. A few of the agents also turned their fire onto the window that had popped open in the neighboring building, unaware that everything had been executed from a great distance away.

"ENGAGE! ENGAGE!" The squad commander roared, as the denizens of the building began to return fire, although given the wide scope of the assault, it was all they could do to just plug a few rounds in the general vicinity of the agents before being forced to duck down. "SHOOT TO KILL!"

Every last agency soldier was obliging, filling the windows with volley after volley, keeping the outnumbered and out-positioned Imperium smugglers from doing much more than barely hang on.

"

Kunzite, hearing the mad chaos on the other end of the audio connection, tapped a second button on the remote through his clothing, detonating a tiny charge on the automated turret he had set up to spark the conflict. The rig would self-destruct, leaving no evidence of his involvement in the bloody confrontation.

"King Kasios." The High Priest turned his focus over to his left, at Endymion's father. "Present yourself." He turned back to the two young adults before him. "Royal couple, step down from the altar, if you please."

With a polite pair of nods, the two quickly moved over to the left side, watching King Kasios slowly ascend up in front of Pious. The organ began playing again, this tune slightly more regal and ominous.

"King Kasios. It has been nearly a hundred years since one person could claim rule over more than one Kingdom. Nearly a hundred years since a single King or Queen controlled multiple independent Kingdoms. You are the first since Queen Aelia controlled Saturn and Uranus, a joint rulership that ended ninety-three years ago. As of the marriage between your son and Princess Serenity being made official, just moments ago, you are now the master of both the Kingdom of Earth and the Kingdom of the Moon. Both Kingdoms bow to your rule. And with that, comes a new title. You have risen above the title of King, Kasios. So today, you are now recognized officially as High King Kasios."

Kasios nodded, watching as the High Priest removed the scepter from it's stand again.

Kunzite, ever mindful of proper etiquette, watched the proceedings with interest, even as his ears remained half-focused on the radio announcements.

"Sir! The enemy has ceased returning fire, requesting permission to storm the brownstone!"

"

Mimete, down on her hands and knees, was frantically crawling down the staircase, seeing a trio of corpses down in the front lobby of the brownstone. Formerly her men, now scorched by multiple plasma shots, bodies emitting an unpleasant odor from the burning of flesh and internal organs. She quickly crawled past them, relieved that the firing had stopped.

"Who...who shot first?!" she shouted as she frantically scrambled her body into a compartment underneath the staircase. "WHO SHOT FIRST?!"

No response. She could hear some groans from neighboring rooms, signifying that not everyone was dead, but nobody was in any state to answer her. She had certainly not given the command to fire, and none of her lieutenants would be stupid enough to actually try to win a firefight in these circumstances. Surely the agency wouldn't have started the fight, not when their interest was taking prisoners. But thoughts of who to blame quickly left her as she felt the pain in her left side, a glancing blow from a plasma bolt having struck her back upstairs.

Breathing heavily, knowing she had mere beats left before the soldiers stormed the building, she opened up a small briefcase stashed beneath the stairs. She opened it up, revealing a red canister.

Fingers shaking, she picked the canister up onto it's side, twisting a couple of knobs built into the side of the device.

"God...God dammit," she muttered under her breath, looking down at the acrid wound in her side. With a mighty scream of frustration, she squeezed her eyes shut, and yanked down yard on a metal ring at the top of the canister.

Immediately, a mighty plume of fire shot in all directions from the canister, enveloping everything in a burning hot orange flame. Mimete was the first to go, obviously, painfully scorched to death and burned beyond all recognition within beats. The fire spread all around, consuming the entire brownstone, flames lunging into every single corner and nook, purging it of all life.

"

"Squad commander reporting, uh...we need a fire extinguishing squad here fast, they just scorched the whole building."

"Aw, shit, what happened?"

"We sent a couple guys in, and just before they got inside, the whole place just went up in flame. Definitely an incendiary charge."

"Son of a bitch, there goes our interrogations." A sigh. "Why the hell did a firefight start?"

"They fired first, sir. Some prick in a neighboring building let loose, we didn't have a choice in the matter."

"Alright, extinguishing squad is on it's way. As soon as they put it out, get in there and check for survivors."

"No way anyone survived that. Everyone inside that building is a crisp. Will do, though."

"Casualties on our end?"

"None up front. Once we started shooting they barely were able to return fire. No collateral either, barely anyone around thanks to the wedding."

"Copy."

Kunzite, satisfied with the report being sent directly into his ear, looking over at Endymion, catching the Prince's eye. He gave Endymion a curt little nod after making sure that he was looking. Endymion returned the nod.

"So, as of this moment, I pronounce you High King Kasios." The High Priest set an ornate silver crown on the top of Kasios's head, Kasios bending over slightly to allow Pious to do it. "King of Earth, King of the Moon, you are now bestowed with the highest title that anyone has held in nearly a hundred years. And so, although the precise wording of the phrase may be slightly inadequate at this point, I would like everyone present, everyone watching, wherever you may be today, to join me in a simple proclamation, to show respect to this great ruler." He looked around the room. "Rise."

Everyone seated in the benches got to their feet in a wave, everyone paying attention very closely to every word the High Priest had to say.

"All hail the King," Pious intoned.

"All hail the King," Endymion said quietly, hearing Serenity say the same phrase from right next to him, also hearing it from every single person in the room behind him, all of them saying it as one, the hundreds of voices voicing the phrase in a wave.

"

END OF ARC ONE

A/N: If you've made it this far, congratulations, you are now done with arc one of five of my story! Thank you so much for sticking with me for this long, and I hope you are liking what you have read to this point.

As a note, the start of arc two may take about a week to push out, but I believe I'll be able to write more during the couple of weeks to end 2018, so you may see more chapters faster during that time. Generally, my current plan is to upload two chapters a week, one on wednesday and one on sunday, so unless things happen to change that that is what you can generally expect.

Feel free to let me know how you feel about arc one now that you've gotten through it, either through review or PM, I love to hear all kinds of feedback. See you in a week for arc two! :)


	13. Unforeseen Consequences

START OF ARC TWO

Chapter 13: Unforeseen Consequences

Endymion delicately pulled the top of the square black box off, exposing the brown lid of a round jar. He pried his fingers down into the corners of the box to pull the jar out.

"It's funny, you know. Every other day of the year, I'm convinced that Neptune has nothing but contempt for us," he mused, holding the jar up in his hands. It was transparent, letting him easily see the small brown squares that filled the entire inside, each one maybe the size of his thumbnail. "They barely communicate with us, our trade agreements are basically based off complete necessity and nothing else, they don't respond to invitations to meet for meals or theater shows, just...seems like they hate us. But every year, I'm getting a package from them on my birthday."

"What is it?" Serenity asked, looking at the jar, Endymion holding it up in his hands.

"Horse treats," he answered.

"Most horses I've seen could eat that whole jar in two bites," Serenity remarked as Endymion handed the jar over to her.

"No no, you just put one of the squares in with their feed," Endymion explained. "They're really strong, so just one square can affect the flavor of the whole meal. They stimulate muscle growth, expand the lungs, increase the strength and stamina of the horse. But they're not steroids in the strict sense, so you don't have the bad side effects of typical growth hormones." He nodded. "Can only find those on Neptune, very rare, very expensive."

"Ooooh." Serenity went over to set the jar on the floor, alongside a slew of other assorted gifts that Endymion had already opened, books and clothes and valued objects and artifacts and everything else under the sun, so it seemed. And yet, there was a giant pile of boxes and wrapped objects sitting there, all the same, waiting to have their contents revealed.

"So, when Helios produces offspring, we might feed that offspring those treats with his food when he's growing up, so when he's full-sized, he's a true stallion. That, plus his strong stock, will make him a champion."

Endymion, wearing his purple bathrobe and nothing else, was sitting up on his bed, back resting against the headboard, left foot crossed over his right foot, the very picture of a relaxed, at-ease young man, basking in the glow of his twentieth birthday.

"Alright, how about the long thin one?" Endymion said, pointing over towards the pile of boxes.

"Hey, now that I think about it, why am I shuttling your gifts to you?" Serenity stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "They're _your_ gifts!"

"Um, because you're my wife and we love each other and you live for those moments where you can do things to make my life easier?" Endymion suggested jokingly. "And also, it's my birthday, and I'm not leaving my bed unless I'm properly incentivized."

"I'm pregnant!" Serenity protested, pointing down at her belly, which was starting to show clear signs of a bulge that marked that she was carrying a child. "You should be carrying stuff to _me_!"

"But it's not your birthday, now is it?" Endymion said with a grin.

Serenity rolled her eyes. "And I don't think a birthday is a good reason to not get out of bed!" She went up to Endymion's side, grabbing his left arm and tugging on it, leaning back to try to use her weight to pry him from the bed. "Come on, let's go, lazy!"

Endymion, however, was quick to turn the tables on his wife, reaching forward to grab the sleeve of her blouse and pull her over towards him. She gave a playful little shriek as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her up onto his bed. Tightly caressing her, placing her in his lap, he started to kiss the top of her head.

"Oh, you are just the worst," she teased, nevertheless quickly melting in his grasp, leaning back as he snuggled up against her.

"Twenty is a pretty big number, you know," Endymion said, whispering as he stroked his fingers gently through her hair. "If it was...twenty-three or nineteen, or something like that, maybe I wouldn't care so much. But, twenty, I mean, that's a big milestone, give me something for that one!"

Serenity giggled, leaning her head back into his chest and craning it back to look up at him. "You know, it's your fault I'm pregnant. I even warned you, remember?"

"Oh...worse things have happened," Endymion replied. "Anyway, if you absolutely insist on not being a team player, I suppose I'll just have that maid called up here to bring me my gifts. What was her name? Julia?"

"Oh, you are the _stone_ worst," Serenity muttered. She squirmed out of his grip, getting to her feet. "Fine, fine."

A series of knocks at the bedroom door interrupted the playful intimacy.

"Who goes there?" Endymion called out.

"Someone who's going to beat your ass if you're still in bed," a voice replied.

"Come in, dad," Endymion said casually, leaning back and accepting whatever assbeating he might be due.

King Kasios entered the room with a click of the door swinging open, frowning over at his son. "You haven't even bathed yet? You know it's mid-day already."

"Yes, mid-day. The middle of the day. This day. Hm, what's significant about this day in particular, I wonder?" Endymion put his finger to his chin in pretend thought.

"Alright son, wash up and put some clothes on if you want my present," Kasios insisted, glancing over his shoulder at the bathing room door.

Endymion gave a mock sigh. "Alright, if you insist." He looked over at his wife. "Serenity, go get the sponges and get to work."

Serenity stuck her tongue out at Endymion at this remark.

"Alright, I don't have time to stand around and watch you act like a bum," Kasios said. "Meet you down in the garage."

Endymion's eyes immediately widened at this final word, snapping his head over to look at his father as the older man retreated from the room. "Garage?!" he practically squealed, rocketing up to his feet and making a mad dash for the bathing chamber.

Serenity watched him, eyebrow raised in amused confusion. "All I had to do was say that one word to get him up?" She put her hands on her hips as Endymion quickly disappeared into the adjacent room.

Kasios stuck his head back into the room, looking over at the pregnant Princess. "You might wanna come see this one too."

"

Practically staggering forward, eyes wide and mouth open, Endymion looked like a five-year-old having just been presented the latest and greatest toy by his parents. It was almost charming.

In front of him, a sparkling-new silver spaceship was perched on a docking port, body sleek and vaguely tube-like, with the nose and sides tapered down. Endymion ran up to the side, running his right hand along the smooth surface.

"Cutting edge doesn't even do it justice," Kasios said, putting his hands on his lips. "In about ten years, this thing will be on the cutting edge. Right now, it's beyond even that edge."

"Beautiful," Endymion marveled. "I'll almost feel bad flying the thing."

"I thought about having it pre-decorated, but...I figured it'd be better if you got to customize it," Kasios said. "So, just think about how you want to deck it out, we'll have a couple guys from the factory swing by soon to handle it. And, you can name it."

Endymion bent down, looking at the landing gear, deployed and contacting the concrete floor. "What are we talking? Cruising speed, point oh oh one speed of light?"

"Point oh oh one five," Kasios replied. "Cruising speed, we're talking from Earth to Moon in maybe...fifty secundas?"

"Less than a minuta," Endymion said breathlessly.

"Not that it matters, not when you can just jump there in a matter of beats," Kasios said casually.

Endymion stood back up straight, looking over at his father. "What are you talking about?"

"I just mean, why take fifty secundas to get somewhere when you don't even need one?" He pointed up at the brand new ship. "Just jump it."

"Bullshit," Endymion rasped, quickly stalking back over towards his father.

"Hey!" Serenity interrupted, standing right next to the King of Earth, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, yes, my deepest apologies, we all know that the pure maiden Princess Serenity of the Moon has _never_ had her angelic ears befouled by such loathsome, brutish language," Endymion said dramatically, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Wordlessly, Serenity pointed down at her bulging belly.

"Oh." Endymion rolled his eyes, but went up to his wife nevertheless and placed his palm on her stomach, bending over towards it. "Sorry, you didn't hear that," he whispered.

"Son, this sucker can jump," Kasios re-iterated, pointing up at the ship. "Believe me, with what I paid for it, it had better."

Endymion spun back around, looking at the ship. "You gotta be...what does this seat? Eight?"

"Ten," Kasios corrected.

"This is a Class A!" Endymion exclaimed. "Class A starships can't jump, it's not safe."

"Not anymore," Kasios said. "Although you might not see Class A starships that can pull it off on the market for the general public for awhile...it is possible. You're looking right at the evidence of it."

"So, what you're saying is that this tiny little ship could...get me through the asteroid belt? Get me to Jupiter in...what, one-sixth of an Earth day?" He scratched his nose. "Be real with me, what are the odds that I end up a clump of goo that has to get peeled off the seat?"

"Oh, knock it off," Kasios said, cuffing Endymion around his head. "I'd say at least sixty, sixty-five percent of the time it's totally safe."

Endymion cocked his head to the right a bit. "Dad. You don't have any other heirs."

"It's safe, son," Kasios insisted. "You think I'd give it to you without the technology being tested?"

A low whistle drew Endymion's gaze, coming from his left. Four grey uniformed figures approached. Jadeite's eyes were on the new ship, marvelling in it's sleek and modern design.

"I do love them when they're naked," Jadeite remarked. "I understand, a good-looking set of decals and paints has its appeal, but there's something so pure about a brand-new starship, just off the assembly line."

"Oh, there's no assembly line for a ship like this," Endymion said, looking back up at it proudly as his four guardians approached. "This is one-of-a-kind."

"Shall we?" Kasios suggested, beckoning towards the open hatch.

"

Endymion, Serenity, Kasios, and the four Earth generals were now giving the interior of the ship a visual inspection. Endymion had his focus on the main console, up just in front of the pilot's chair, a panel of buttons, levers and lights, with two large joysticks on either side of it.

"Seamless transition from atmosphere to non-atmosphere environments, so this baby can serve as a planet-based shuttle just as well as an interplanetary one," Kasios said, pulling the floor panel up to expose the large cargo holds below. "Cargo holds grade out perfect as far as Class A ships go, in terms of capacity it's as much as an average B ship."

"I just can't imagine the Prince ever using this room," Nephrite commented, stepping out of a small side chamber, just big enough for one person to stand up in and not much else. "Class A ship with a latrine and shower, what'll they think of next?"

"Hey, it may not be a five-star spa and sauna," Zoisite agreed. "But, when you've absolutely got to go, you'll be happy it's there."

"This autopilot system is quite something," Kunzite said, holding a couple of sheets of paper in his hands, scanning the instructions within. "Complete customization, you can...plot out a course for the ship to follow over years and years and it'll do it without any human interaction."

"Vostek Systems," Kasios said. "Doing some insane stuff with autopilot systems lately. It even detects obstacles in real-time, changes course to avoid crashing and then goes back to the original course."

"Emergency beacon," Jadeite commented, pointing up at a square handle hanging from the ceiling. "What's the range?"

"Whole galaxy," Kasios replied. "You end up stranded in the middle of space, run out of fuel or the engines get damaged, you just fire it off and someone'll come and find you."

"Oooh, I found the food and drink compartment!" Serenity called out, pulling a rack out of the left-side wall, exposing a small refridged chamber and a couple shelves.

"That's where the good stuff goes," Kasios remarked. "You reach over to the right side of where you pulled the rack out of, you'll find the survival rations."

"Well, if the Prince ever has to use those, then he'll _definitely_ be needing that latrine," Kunzite muttered.

Kasios went over to Endymion, tapping him on the shoulder and putting his hand out in front of him, supporting a small cylindrical crystal in his palm. "You'll be needing this to start it."

Endymion took the little crystal, examining it for a moment, and then finding a circular hole in the main console. He slowly inserted the crystal into the gap, giving it a twist to the left, causing it to start to glow green. The console also lit up, various buttons and indicator lights flickering on.

"The little flap on the right covers the seat controls," Kasios explained. "You tap the switches underneath there, you can make the nine other seats come up from below. Like I said, seats ten. Meaning you can have up to four kids, and after that you're getting snipped."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure there's enough room for...thirty or forty more kids in the cargo hold if need be," Endymion joked.

"Just what, exactly, are you planning on doing with my womb?" Serenity asked warily, pushing the rack back into the wall.

"Too late, sweetie," Endymion said quickly. "We're already married, can't back out now, too late to start asking questions."

"Well, there's plenty more cool stuff on this ship, but I'll let you figure it out for yourself as you use it," Kasios said. "But, uh, pretty sweet ride. So, what're you gonna name it?"

Endymion swallowed, slowly glancing around the ship's interior. "How about... _The Bastion_?"

Kasios puckered his lips a bit in thought. "That's pretty good."

"I'll think about it, but I kind of like that one," Endymion said.

Kasios reached down into his right pocket, pulling out a round, flat device with a little earpiece dangling off the edge. He gave the earpiece a gentle tug, extending it out from the device on a thin cord, and then placing it in his ear. "Kasios speaking," he said, holding the device up to his mouth. "I...yes, I'm still the King, but it's not relevant." He took a couple steps away from his son, moving down the chamber towards the back. "Yes, High King, whatever, just...what's going on?"

Endymion flicked the little panel up on the right side of the console, exposing two lines of switches. He moved the top right one up, causing a little trap door on the floor to his right to open up and a chair to unfold up from it.

"Ninety-nine percent?!"

Endymion head perked up slightly.

"No, no, there's...that's impossible," Kasios muttered. "That would...that would mean...shit." He put his hand up to his forehead. "Hold on, let me...let me go somewhere quiet." He went over to the ship's exit hatch, tapping his foot on one of the floor panels a few times. The panel he was standing on started to slowly descend down a pole, to the floor of the garage. "You've run every test?"

Endymion slowly turned around, eyes meeting Kunzite's for a brief moment. He quickly pushed the illicit thoughts from his mind, however, looking around at his guardians and his wife. "How about a test drive? Moon and back?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Zoisite concurred.

"No autopilot on this one," Endymion said. "First time, I'm doing it as the Gods intended. With my hands."

"Unless your plan involves standing on the wing and paddling to the Moon with your hands, that's not happening," Jadeite cracked. "But yes, let's do it."

"Soon as my father's off the call, we'll go," Endymion said, clapping his hands together.

"What about the rest of the presents?" Serenity asked.

"Oh, plenty of time tonight for that," Endymion replied.

Suddenly, Kasios reappeared from down below, pocketing the communicator as he rose up from the garage level. "Hey, uh, son, I hate to do this to you, but...we've got a situation, they've asked for me up on _The Savery_ as soon as possible." He looked rather uncomfortable. "I doubt I'll be back tonight, so...whenever I get back, if you wanna do your birthday dinner then, we can do that."

"Dad, don't worry about it," Endymion insisted. "We have dinner together two hundred times a year, maybe more, I'll be fine. You do what you need to do."

"Sorry, we've just got a serious development and people are freaking out," Kasios explained. "Too much for me to try to work remotely, I need to be up there." He nodded over at his son. "You take her out for a ride if you want, I'm heading out now."

Kasios again started to descend down on the automatic lifter, leaving Endymion to jump into the pilot seat. Quickly flipping a few switches to deploy enough seats for everyone present, he waited for his father to be clear of the landing gear before he sealed up the hatch and began to gently lift the ship up from the parking slot.

"Alright, we're cruising to the Moon, I want to test out the throttle," Endymion said, pushing a couple little levers up in front of him, then reaching forward to the joysticks to turn the ship to the right. "As soon as we break the atmosphere, I'm pushing it to the maximum. And then we jump back, I'll believe this thing can jump when I see it."

With that, he guided the ship out of the large opening to the outside world, pointing the nose up towards the sky. An eye on the radar up to his right, he began to push it upward, speeding off into the clear blue skies above.

"

"Good twentieth, Your Highness," Kunzite said, leaning up to Endymion's shoulder as the Crown Prince engaged automatic cruise on the ship, letting it coast aimlessly through space, gently puttering about in orbit around the Earth. Everyone else had been dropped off back in the garage for the Earth Palace, leaving just Endymion and his closest general.

"Thank you." Endymion leaned back in the chair, looking up at the roof of the ship. "So, what's the good word?"

Kunzite quickly pulled a rectangular piece of equipment from his uniform, turning a knob atop it and pressing down on a button in the center of the face. "Test, test." He glanced at a tiny little screen on the face of the device, then pocketed it again. "Okay, we're clear."

"It's been fifteen days since Mimete got taken out, I think we've laid low long enough," Endymion said, spinning his seat around to face Kunzite. "What have you heard?"

"We organized the assassination of a high-level imperium Kingpin, Your Majesty. You could easily argue that we should be planning on laying low for many years before we try anything," Kunzite pointed out.

"Well, we don't have years," Endymion countered. "We've got more than twenty-three libras of product left, nearly twenty-six million creds worth, and it's not doing anyone any good hiding in your safehouse. Me and Serenity are good, too, we've patched things up, she probably doesn't even remember the friction. Now, what's going on out there? What have you heard?"

"Well...the news is all quite good, actually," Kunzite admitted. "So. The Mimete situation."

"

With a powerful little slap, Kasios placed a large, square picture up on the wall with a little clip to keep it in place. It was an artist's rendition of a woman's face, orange hair falling just short of her shoulders, and a couple of large white earrings hanging from her ears.

"So. The Mimete situation," Kasios called out, turning to the room, populated mostly by a long wooden table with all of the agency council members present on either side of it. "Obviously, she's charcoal. Cancel the cremation, she took care of it for us."

The room gave a couple light laughs.

"We've been after this one for years. Always managed to elude us, smart enough to stay on the move. Didn't help that it took us awhile to realize that she looks like a banker's trophy wife. High-level distributor, got networks of dealers in hundreds of towns on Earth. And fifteen Earth-days ago, we wiped out her and a pack of her lieutenants."

"Must have crippled close to...forty percent of the black market on Earth," Naxos commented from the right side of the table. "That's one of the biggest wins we've had this century."

"You say that," Kasios replied. "Might be a reasonable assumption." Kasios walked over to the head of the table, grabbing a red folder and holding it up in the air. "And yet, according to the information from our agents, delivered earlier today, Mimete's distribution network—"

"

"—is still active," Kunzite said, leaning up towards Endymion. "Nephrite's network has reports of the same dealers dealing in cities all across the Earth, as if nothing's changed."

"So the distribution ran largely independent of the one in charge," Endymion reasoned thoughtfully.

"No, this was...too smooth," Kunzite objected. "Mimete's death was a very public affair, big firefight like that, everybody knows about it. There's no way the distribution network would just keep running like that without a hitch, unless she wasn't really the one in charge."

"So, Mimete was working for someone?" Endymion asked.

"Perhaps...someone with distribution networks on multiple planets and moons, and Mimete ran things on the ground level on Earth. And this person was able to immediately implement a new boss when Mimete left, that's...it's the only way you could get all those dealers to remain loyal." Kunzite nodded. "Mimete answered to someone, and that someone was able to replace her quickly."

"Replace her with who?" Endymion leaned forward a bit towards Kunzite.

Kunzite shrugged. "No way to know yet. More interesting might be who—"

"

"—was Mimete working for?" Kasios tapped the artist's rendering of Mimete's face with his fingers a few times. "These are the questions that need answering."

"An interplanetary imperium Kingpin," Galen mused. "Maybe, anyway. That's a _loooooot_ of money, if that's actually what we're dealing with."

"Okay, now, the clear stuff," Kasios continued. "Originally, we were working under the assumption that it was being distributed by a new group, given that it was only being sold in one city at a time. And yet, the supply dried up basically right after Mimete broiled herself, so now we're reconsidering. Today was actually the first time we found a trace of the new stuff since the shootout. All our other busts, we're getting fifty-five percent garbage, at best."

"Alright." Timon hand his hand wrapped around his chin, leaning forward onto the table. "So, this master chemist...uh, Tuxedo Mask or whatever, they were in the building when it went up? That's what I'm thinking."

"Possible," Kasios acknowledged. "That definitely occurred to me."

"Maybe Mimete was the only point of contact with this chemist? She's gone, they can't contact him?" Jorja suggested. "Maybe they're just laying low with the good stuff for a bit, given they just had a big bite taken out of their operation?"

"Possible, possible." Kasios nodded. "It's just, something occurs to me." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at the picture. "How'd we get her? She's been eluding us for years, and then suddenly an angel comes down on us from above, delivers an anonymous tip that happens to lead to _exactly_ where she's holed up? Just a couple cycles after this new stuff hits the market?" He shrugged. "Seems like there might be some sort of connection there."

"So…" Naxos paused, thinking. "Getting rid of competition. This Tuxedo Mask character tips us off so we take out Mimete?"

Kasios put his right hand up in front of his chest, shaking it back and forth, face wrinkled a bit. "Ehhh, maybe. Me, personally, I'm thinking that they were working together. He was coming up with the clear product, she was distributing it. Maybe they had a limited supply, could only go one city at a time. Then, maybe they had a falling out, and our mysterious Tuxedo Mask tipped us off to get her out of the way."

"It lines up," Galen acknowledged. "Explains why things have dried up so much since we took her out."

"Now, if I'm right about all that, our...Tuxedo Mask is out there somewhere, chilling out, laying low, waiting for things to cool off, maybe trying to secure a—"

"

"—new distributor," Kunzite said. "Not...whoever replaced Mimete, obviously. I'm sure they're at least highly suspicious that we were the ones who tipped off the agency." He gave a half-hearted little shrug. "Although, Nephrite's spies say they haven't heard anything about there being some sort of underground hunt for us for a revenge hit."

"Maybe they don't think it was us," Endymion suggested, passing one of the glass bottles over Kunzite's shoulder, allowing the general to take it. "It's a high-risk profession, people get arrested all the time, maybe they just chalk it up to bad luck."

"Still, maybe we'll have better luck trying to find a smaller-scope distributor," Kunzite suggested. "I can start looking around for something immediately, if you'd like. And, I feel like we should at least note that if we were to turn our find into the agency now, the Kingdom of Earth would receive the reward, and the Moon would be unable to do anything about it."

Endymion ripped the cap off his own glass bottle, taking a gulp from it, thinking to himself. "Noted. Now, why do we need a distributor?"

"Is that a real question?" Kunzite asked, taking the cap off his own bottle, then lifting the mouth up to his nose and sniffing.

"No no no, I mean...I know why we need distribution. But why do we need a distributor?" Endymion clarified as Kunzite took a drink from the bottle. "How much money was Mimete making off of us? I know the markup was more than a hundred percent, close to one-fifty."

"Are...are you proposing that I start selling our product on the street?" Kunzite said. "Like, walking around the streets at night, selling it one carat at a time?"

"No, I'm proposing that _we_ should be the new Mimete," Endymion said. "We should be the distributors. We'd make money a lot faster, and we'd be in better control."

"Yes, but we don't have thousands of people, living among the populace, ready to sell our imperium to customers," Kunzite said.

"No. No we don't," Endymion admitted. "Not thousands…" he glanced up at his general. "...almost a thousand, though."

Kunzite paused mid-drink, slowly lowering the bottle down in front of him. "You want...Nephrite's spies to distribute imperium?"

"It's perfect," Endymion mused. "They're out there, spread out all around the Earth, normal members of society, not suspicious at all. Nothing official connects them to Nephrite or the palace. They've been vetted by Nephrite himself for competency and loyalty."

Kunzite's forehead wrinkled. "It's not what they're intended for. We'd be putting them at risk, potentially. And I don't just mean from the agency. But...it's not unreasonable."

"I mean, why should we be going through a middleman who ends up with half the profit? We go out there, search for another distributor, maybe we strike up a deal, maybe they're more sane than Mimete was, maybe they don't get busted, maybe our relationship stays positive...lot of maybes in there." He put his hands up to his chest. "Let's be the boss here. Besides, this way we should be able to move the product faster. Remember, we've still got that big barrel of—"

"

"—boron crystal fluid." Galen, now standing up at the head of the table next to Kasios, looked around at the many present council members. "Whoever stole it was a smooth operator, took them awhile to realize it was gone. Now, until today, it wasn't our problem." He pointed at the table surface right in front of him, where a tiny paper envelope was sitting. "Today, this turned up. Three carats of refined, synthesized imperium. Ninety-nine point oh-one percent pure."

"So, our Tuxedo Mask character either has our formula, or he's come up with another one that works about as well," Kasios interjected.

"It's our formula," Galen said. "So, what I'm about to say doesn't leave this room. I don't care to have to say this, information about the formula has never extended beyond the Grandmaster and the lab chemists ever since the agency formed, but given this development I have no choice." He cleared his throat. "Boron crystal fluid is the catalyst for our formula. It doesn't have that many other uses, so there's no way this is a coincidence."

Timon frustratedly thumped his forearms down on the table. "Great. So now we've got a leak inside the agency?"

Jorja shook her head. "Only a few people we can even accuse, if that's what it is. Only one person in this room has access to that formula."

"And I don't hate this job _nearly_ enough to try to accuse that person," Kasios added, shooting Galen a wry look.

"Alright, do we put the lab chemists under increased surveillance?" Naxos asked. "It must be from them."

"Must is a bit strong," Kasios replied. "We can't rule out someone managing to figure it out on their own. Expert-level chemistry knowledge and a whole lot of luck, it could happen."

"Not much of a lead," Solomon pointed out from the very end of the table. "I guess we could investigate everyone who ever had perfect scores on their advanced chemistry level ten exams."

"Well." Kasios, hands on his lips, spun around to face the back wall of the conference room. "Maybe we turn our focus to Mercury, then. I mean, we all know it, even if we can't get them to admit it. They've got the formula down in those vaults somewhere. Maybe Tuxedo Mask got it from there? Could start there, maybe. Mercury, and Jupiter, since that's where the fluid got stolen from. It's a start anyway."

"Also of note," Galen said, voice raising just a tad. "As I said, our thief made off with a big barrel of boron fluid. Not a bottle, not a jug, a barrel. Half a culeus. Enough for over a thousand libras of imperium if the chemist is skilled, and this one certainly is. And why bother taking a barrel when a jug would suffice? This tells us that this Tuxedo Mask has enough raw product to justify taking that much. Meaning, we can't expect this particular imperium strain to just dry up and disappear. If I had to guess, I'd say we're just getting started, and it's only a matter of time before this Tuxedo Mask is back—"

"

"—in business." Endymion tossed the two empty bottles into a little chute on the right wall of the ship. "And this time, we're calling the shots. No unknown variables that can get in our way and muck up the works. We make the product, we sell it."

"I'll see about bringing Nephrite on board," Kunzite offered. "We're using his network so much in this anyway, may as well just tell him what's going on."

Endymion nodded, closing the chute. He took a couple steps over to Kunzite, clapping him on the shoulder. "I know it's been bumpy, Kunzite. We've both put ourselves in danger, taken some risks, it's...it's been stressful. But now, we get to do everything safely. It's just business from here on out. We're making a product that we sell for money."

"We should get back to the palace. You have other gifts to open, Serenity's waiting," Kunzite pointed out, gesturing up to the pilot chair with a jerk of his head.

Endymion went over to the chair. "But seriously, Kunzite. It's totally different from here on out. Nobody gets hurt from now on."

"

Lyra slowly ran the butt end of her pen down the left side of the sheet of paper, past columns of numerical figures. "So, the left column is for the amounts, these are in culeuses, and...next to that we have the income from the transaction. Next to that, income per culeus."

Queen Jupiter bent her head down, resting it in her palms. "Lyra, I understand that I'm the Queen now, and I know that I should be...generally aware of these things, but please, please, please tell me that I'm not going to have to spend the rest of my life looking at numbers like this."

"No, not all the time, but you should have an understanding of our exports," Lyra assured her.

"I know enough to know that we probably have...a thousand sheets like this every cycle. If I actually have to start going over all of those, I'll just...sell the planet to Mercury, go start a dojo on Mars or something." She rolled her eyes.

"No no, you just need proper context so you can understand what we're talking about when we discuss hiking some of the rates."

Queen Jupiter's study was practically a packed house, with perhaps twenty different aides and advisors crowded around a sturdy wooden desk.

"If Venus is going to hike the price on extremia, which we require in order to make the tools to harvest silvia gas, then it follows logically that we need to raise the going rate on silvia gas," one of the voices from the crowd of the Queen's assistants spoke up.

"Okay, that...that makes sense to me," Jupiter replied, nodding slowly. "We should do that, yes."

"The alternative would be, seek some sort of arrangement with Venus, some way they could...bring us to some sort of equilibrium. Keep the rest of the galaxy from being involved in this, just keep it between us and them." Another of the advisors raised her hand up in the air as she spoke.

Jupiter nodded. "That might be good too."

"Now, if we go that way, we could avoid blowback from the other Kingdoms, they wouldn't like the silvia rates getting pushed up," Lyra said slowly. "Could be some consequences there. On the other hand, it would mean a bigger surplus."

The door at the far end of the room slid open, distracting everyone from the topic at hand. A head poked into the room, looking at the sea of royal advisors. The Queen stood up, managing to get up a bit higher than everyone else's head so that she could be seen.

"Pardon me, Your Highness, some men are here from the Galactic Imperium Agency. They're very insistent about seeing you now," the man said.

Jupiter gave an annoyed grunt. "Can't even call ahead? Rude."

"Um, I agree, Your Highness," Lyra said quietly. "But we're best off cooperating with the agency as much as we can, uh, you should see them."

Queen Jupiter scowled, but then lifted her head up towards the door. "Invite them in," she instructed.

"Oh, uh, put your shoes on, please," Lyra said as the door across the room shut. Jupiter looked down, and with a sigh, slipped her feet into a pair of brown, ankle-cut boots.

"We'll continue the silvia discussion after this," Jupiter announced out to the room of advisors. "I plan on making it quick."

However, hopes of that were significantly reduced on the door re-opening, allowing at least fifteen uniformed agency representatives to enter. All of them wearing black, tight-fitting uniforms, they flooded into the room, spreading out into the crowd of royal advisors, little regard for manners or etiquette. 

"Queen Jupiter," one of them said, giving a tiny bow towards her after pushing to the front of the crowd. "I'm Special Agent Felix, we're here concerning the theft of boron crystal fluid from one of your chemical warehouses recently."

Jupiter's face went blank, mind racing through the assorted news updates her many assistants had delivered to her in recent days.

"Y-yes, we're familiar with the theft," Lyra said, raising her right hand up a bit in the air. "Eighty congii of boron crystal fluid from warehouse number eight—"

"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the Queen," Felix said dismissively, waving Lyra off. "Now, we have some questions for you and your staff of advisors. Background information, financials, that sort of thing."

"Uh...I…" Queen Jupiter blinked dully a few times, quickly overwhelmed.

"What do we have to do with chemical theft, why are you questioning us?" Lyra interrupted. "And how is even an agency issue?"

"Again, I'm not talking to you," Felix repeated sternly. "Queen Jupiter, we believe that the theft of fluid from your warehouse is related to another series of crimes, that's all we can say at this time. We need to conduct individual interviews with you, all of your advisors, and all high-ranking officials in your regime. Immediately."

Queen Jupiter flinched at this command. "That's...probably three hundred people!"

"Yes, so we need to get started now." He gestured behind him at the thick crowd. "We can start with the people in this room, kindly call in everyone else. If you cooperate, we can conduct these interviews here, and not on _The Savery_."

"H-how long is this going to take?" Jupiter asked, going slightly pale.

"I can't answer that, Your Highness, but the sooner we get started the sooner we can finish."

With a mighty sigh, Jupiter plunked back down in her seat. With a frustrated frown on her face, Jupiter gave a small nod. "I'll...I'll round everyone up." She covered her face with her hands.

"Thank you," Felix said. "Alright, everyone!" He turned around. "Okay, we can take eight people at a time, let's...let's go alphabetically, everyone please line up in alphabetical order and we'll go from there!"

Jupiter shook her head slowly from behind her hands. "Oh, just what I needed."

"

"For the last time. Our vault is off-limits to all outsiders."

Queen Mercury had risen to her feet from the head of the ornate, bejeweled dinner table, turned away from her half-eaten plate of dinner, trying to put up a strong front against the demanding agency representative. Wearing a tight black suit, he stood there, holding a clipboard in his right hand and his arms crossed over his chest.

Princess Mercury sat there on the left side of the table, nervously glancing over at the confrontation while picking at her dinner.

"Well, Your Highness, then we have no choice but to make assumptions. We need a list of everyone who has been allowed inside the vault, at any point, for any duration of time," Special Agent Octavian said evenly, glancing down at the clipboard.

"Everyone?" Queen Mercury repeated. "Everyone?"

"Everyone alive," Octavian clarified.

"For...for what purpose?"

Octavian glanced over his shoulder at the pair of royal Mercury guards, stationed by the door. "We believe there might be a connection to a recently committed crime, that's all I can divulge. The agency needs to interview everyone who's ever been in that vault." He gestured over at Princess Mercury. "Obviously, that includes you and your daughter, but I'm assuming you've kept records of everyone who's been allowed in there?"

"W-what are we being accused of, exactly?" Queen Mercury demanded. "I...we're talking about hundreds of people here! You come in here, no appointment, no warning, no call-ahead, you walk in on me in the middle of dinner, and you demand all of this information, I...what are you accusing me of?"

"Nothing. And if you want to keep it that way, you'll cooperate with our investigation." He uncoiled his arms. "Alright, we'll leave you and your daughter to dinner, but we expect a list of people to interview sometime tonight. And you and your daughter should gather information about your private financials for the interview."

Queen Mercury's mouth fell open slightly. "Private financials?! Are...you do realize who we are, right?"

"Your Highness, if you want this to be over with quickly, the best thing you can do is help us get this over with by facilitating this process to the best of your abilities." He spun around on his heel.

"I...what does our vault possibly have to do with agency business?!" Queen Mercury said under her breath, quickly taking her seat again and turning back to the table, scowling. "Oh, they don't know how to take no for an answer...probably doing this just to annoy me since I won't let them in there." She aggressively stabbed at a slice of roasted duck on her plate with her fork. "This is just what we needed right now, too."

Princess Mercury, left hand up to the left side of her face, looking at her mother out of the corner of her eyes, absentmindedly poked at her food.


	14. The Virtues of Simplicity

Chapter 14: The Virtues of Simplicity

The short-handled tomahawk axe spun through the air, a little whispering hiss sounding off as it flew forward. With a violent little _thock_ , the bladed edge of the axe embedded itself into a thick wooden board.

Nephrite grabbed a second tomahawk axe from the table in front of him, looking down the empty range at the target at the other end. He reached up to his right at the wall, flipping a little switch. The wooden board started to glow a gentle green, and then began slowly moving to the left of the range, levitating along the back wall via a small anti-gravity pad.

He tossed the axe up in the air, letting it spin around above him, before catching the handle on its way down. As the wooden board began to move back to the right of the range, he cocked his arm back and flung it across the empty room.

A few beats later, it hit its mark, sticking into the wood after hitting it with significant force. Before he could grab another axe, the door behind him opened, drawing his focus. He turned around, watching a large, broad-shouldered man with white hair enter the range.

"Want to do a competitive round?" Nephrite asked.

"Not right now," Kunzite replied, coming up to the brown-haired Earth general. "I just have a few questions, actually."

Nephrite turned back around, eyeing the moving target as he lifted a third axe up in front of him. "Go right ahead."

"How's your network these days?" Kunzite asked, throwing a surreptitious glance around the room.

"Nine hundred...sixty-two," Nephrite answered. "Still humming along, nice and quiet."

"Sounds good," Kunzite replied. "So, these...nine hundred and sixty-two. How do you pick them? What kind of criteria do you use to decide who's going to be brought in?"

"Two things, primarily," Nephrite answered. He paused for a moment to hurl the axe down the range, again striking the target, this one landing right next to the first two. "Loyalty to the Crown, and general competency."

"Loyalty," Kunzite repeated. "How do you mean that?"

"Well, these people, it's important that they maintain their normal lives even as they work for me. Go about their lives as normal. You know, nobody around them can suspect a thing. But, through all of that, their willingness to reporting information through the network, so that it gets up to me, needs to remain. Not always easy, you might learn things that are uncomfortable to share, detrimental to you, you might be put in a situation where it's dangerous to pursue information. But, your priority has to remain to working in service of the Crown."

"So, these spies, they're...loyal to you above all else?" Kunzite asked. "They consider your orders to take priority over all other concerns?"

Nephrite was sizing up another toss, reaching up to adjust a knob on the wall, making the target start to move faster. "Yes."

"Even if you were to...order them to do something illegal?" Kunzite questioned.

Nephrite, preparing to hurl another axe across the room, froze in his windup for several beats, then turned to look at Kunzite.

"Are you...accusing me of something?" Nephrite asked, lowering the bladed weapon to his side.

"Not at all," Kunzite assured him. "I'm simply asking. If you asked the members of your spy network to participate in illegal activities, could we count on them to agree to that? Or at the very least, not report you for requesting such?"

Nephrite thought for a moment, then turned back to the moving target at the other end of the range. "Yes."

"It wouldn't have to be all of them, just...how many of them do you think are completely trustworthy? Whatever the number may be, a hundred, five hundred, just...really think about it. Only the ones that you think are really waterproof here."

"All of them," Nephrite insisted. "All of them are completely trustworthy, or else I wouldn't have allowed them in."

He threw the axe across the room, watching it spin rapidly in the air before hitting the target, true and straight, just where he wanted to put it.

"Now, Kunzite. How about some context to these questions?" Nephrite turned to look over his shoulder.

Kunzite placed his hand on Nephrite's shoulder. "Let's go see the Prince."

"

"We're sorry for keeping this from you for the last several cycles, it was purely in the interest of keeping things on a strictly need-to-know basis. In the event that things went poorly and we got caught, we wanted to keep the damage to a minimum." Kunzite put his elbows on his knees, leaning forward from his seated position on the edge of the bed.

Nephrite, expression stoic and non-indicative, leaned back on the small green couch in the middle of his private chambers. Other than a punching bag hanging from the ceiling in the near right corner and a set of dumbbells in the far right corner, the room was much like Kunzite's room. Simple, sparse, uninteresting, plain, and little more than functional.

"It has nothing to do with us questioning your ability to keep a secret," Kunzite continued. "In any case, we need a way to distribute our product to the masses, and given the way our first foray into that went, we think that it might be a good idea to keep things as in-house as possible. So, if your spy network could be utilized in this way, I think it could be beneficial to all of us."

Endymion stood right behind Nephrite, looming right behind the small couch, hands loosely gripping into the backrest of the seat, head down and eyes on his general.

"Now, of course, it is illegal, so it's imperative that everyone we bring in on this is completely trustworthy. We understand that these people were recruited by you for information collecting purposes, and they may struggle to transition to a role like this. It's inevitable that some of your men will get arrested, although we can mitigate the effect of that as long as we're careful. And there's danger here beyond that, we're going to end up stepping on the toes of some established dealing networks and they may not like it. So, I understand you might have some concerns, and me and Endymion are more than willing to work to vet them." He lifted his arms up in front of him a bit. "So. What do you think?"

Nephrite looked around his room slowly for a few moments, still giving away nothing. He looked up over his shoulder at Endymion, then turned his gaze back to Kunzite.

"When do we start?"

Endymion slammed his palms down on the backrest of the couch. "Thank you!" he snapped. Nephrite and Kunzite both jumped a bit at the sudden outburst, looking over at the Crown Prince.

"Your Majesty?" Nephrite said cautiously.

"Sorry, sorry, I...I just...that's what I'm talking about!" Endymion nodded emphatically. "I appreciate that!" He punched his right hand into his left palm. "No second guessing, no judgements, no insults, just...how can I help?" He clapped Nephrite on the shoulder a couple times. "That's what I like to see! Don't get me wrong, I love Zoisite, great guy, great friend, but...you know, he gets a little catty about things. Just, I appreciate the way you handle stuff."

Nephrite shrugged. "Not my place to question your decisions."

"Yes, that...that's exactly what I mean, exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!" Endymion clapped his hands together. "So, you're on board?"

"Yes," Nephrite said firmly. "If that is how my spy network can best serve you, then that is what they will do."

"Of course, you understand that their ability to collect information for you would be severely limited if they're involved in this?" Kunzite asked.

"Not a hugely significant factor," Nephrite replied simply. "My efforts to create and expand the network is largely in preparation for when Endymion becomes King. Losing their intel is not something I'm concerned about right now."

"We can essentially start any time," Endymion said. "We have a significant amount of refined imperium ready to move. So it's up to you, Nephrite."

"Give me at least ten days. Maybe fifteen." Nephrite stretched his arms out along the top of the couch's backrest. "I'll need to establish some sort of chain of command, give them the opportunity to pick up on the best ways to sell imperium, establish layers. There might be a bit of a learning curve, I'll try to have as much of it as possible covered before we actually start."

"Your men will be paid for their service," Endymion added. "We'll work out an exact payment plan, but they'll be compensated for the risk."

"I'll start on it right away, Your Highness," Nephrite promised. "And, of course, nobody outside of the network will be told."

"

Transport Dock One of the Moon was the base most typically used for foodstuffs and other goods that required immediate attention in order to be kept in good shape. There were massive nearby rooms that were kept in cool, cold, or even freezing temperatures to assure that whatever needs the imports required could be met. A large ship, the _ETS Samsara_ , had just settled down into one of the docking spots, nestling the grooves along the bottom of the ship into a series of corresponding gaps.

The large side doors on the Class E transport ship slowly swung open, revealing a large collection of slabs of meat, hanging from hooks dangling from the ceiling. A thin mist billowed out of the opened chamber, evidence of the fact that the ship's interior had been kept cold so that the meat would be preserved.

Queen Serenity clapped her hands together in front of her, looking out upon the rows of raw food. "You know what I could go for right now? A nice prime rib. Rock salt along the edges, of course."

"Well, the only question is where we'll get it from," Kasios joked, watching as a couple dozen men in brown uniforms ran past him into the cargo ship. With methodical precision, they each ran up to a row of meat, reaching up towards the hanging hooks with thin metal batons.

"Oh, it's beautiful," Serenity marveled as the slabs of meat began to gently hover in the air independent of the hooks, being guided out of the ship by the assorted dock employees. "And we didn't have to sell my right leg to get it."

"We've got nine more ships just like this one coming in hot," Kasios assured her. "Enough meat to...to...uh…"

"Thank you," Serenity interrupted, wrapping her slim right arm around Kasios's back. "It's such...it's so difficult, not being able to raise and breed livestock on the Moon. Can't grow anything either, it's...oh, frustrating." She put her left hand up to her forehead. "Such a relief, thank you so much."

"Hey, it's part of our deal," Kasios said. "And, mark my words, livestock _will_ be bred on the Moon. Next couple years, you'll have flocks of...cows and pigs and chickens. Artificial fields, synthetic sunlight, really some amazing advances in that technology. Uh, crops too, all this...all this empty space on the Moon, just sitting there...it'll be put to use."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Serenity said wryly. "For nearly forty years now, my...my parents, advisors, everyone, telling me...oh, all this land is worthless for anything except...you know, the real estate, the key is to make sure enough people are here, we have to keep the population numbers up and tourism up. We can build housing, businesses, hotels, all that." She sighed. "It's been so much fun, trying to convince people to come live here when we don't have anything for them."

"It'll change," Kasios assured her. "I mean, not overnight, but...people are going to care about this place again." He jerked his head back and forth in a bit of an awkward nodding motion. "We'll get more water up here too, uh...that's a pretty big deal. It's going to be great, really. People are going to come right back when they see what this place is doing."

The stream of dock workers continued, pouring in and out of the ship, taking the hunks of food out of the ship and moving them into the dock.

"You know, you don't have to be here for this," Serenity pointed out. "I trust you, I'm not holding you here to make sure you didn't short me by a couple libras of beef or something. I know you've got important things going on. Shipments of goods, has to be pretty low on the list."

"No, no, I wanted to be here." He shrugged. "It's the first fleet, I wanted to be here for the first fleet, make sure we're good. Last thing I want is some jerk-off down on Earth sending up spoiled meat or something." His nose wrinkled as he scowled. "They'd do something like that, you know. Some of them, not...not all of them or anything. But I could see it. Hey, the freezer system screwed up, all that meat went bad, let's ship it up to the Moon, screw those guys. Not going to let it happen."

"It's just...I know there's a lot of stuff going on with your outside work lately," Serenity said. "I'd hate to pull you away from _The Savery_ to be here for something like this."

"Mmhm." Kasios gave a little frown. "I-it's not like I'm an agent or a representative or something. I'm not blowing off my street patrol to be here, it's...it's not like that. We're fine."

"What's going on with that, anyway?" Serenity inquired, watching the unloaders continue to shuttle meat slabs out of the transport. "I saw the report that got sent out a little bit ago, I...Tuxedo Mask?" She gave a playful little grin, leaning up close to Kasios. "Is that for real? Did I read that right?"

Kasios slowly nodded. "Yup. Well, I...I don't know, really." He glanced about aimlessly. "Sounds nuts, doesn't it? Half the time, thinking about this case, I don't really believe it myself. I mean, I've been doing this long enough to have seen some pretty...crazy, psychotic, even stupid people getting involved in black market imperium, but this would be a different strain. You saw the outfit he's supposedly wearing?"

"The cape?" Serenity said. "What is he, six years old?"

"Might just be a myth. Maybe a joke, spread around, bunch of clowns deciding it'd be funny to pretend it was real." He rolled his eyes. "I mean, obviously, someone's making the pure stuff, someone's selling it, that's not imaginary." He scoffed. "And either way, at this point, that outfit sketch isn't going to help us at all. Every city on Earth has hundreds of goofballs walking around in that getup now, it may as well be the latest fashion trend."

"How do you do it, Kasios?" Serenity asked.

Kasios took a moment to watch the dock workers continue to quickly move the meat from the ship.

"What do you mean? Do what?"

"E-everything, I...do you have any comprehension of how amazing you are?" Serenity nodded. "All the things you've accomplished, it's...you do understand that it's staggering, right? Your reign alone has seen accomplishments that some royal houses wouldn't see across...three reigns. Universal currency, that was basically all you, I...when I was a little girl, nobody was even thinking about something like that."

"That wasn't all me," Kasios dismissed quickly. "You think something like that can happen because of one person? No, that took everybody. Including you, by the way."

"Sure, but you spearheaded it. And the deep space program, all that money and research and, just, everything." Serenity looked up at the skies. "Putting all that into something that's going to take...decades, probably, to pay off. If it wasn't for you stepping up, we'd probably still be in the planning stages. Nobody else wanted to commit to that."

"Hey, hey, Mercury and Neptune both had their part to play with that," Kasios insisted. "Jupiter too, actually. M-maybe I twisted some arms, made some promises, took some risks, but hey...it's a big universe out there, we've got to start uncovering it."

"And you're a high council member of the agency, and the Earth is enjoying a period of great prosperity and success, and this merger, it's...you should be very proud, is what I mean. I don't know how you do it. Don't know how you haven't...dropped dead of stress."

Kasios's small smile began to drop from his face, as he looked around at the meat slabs being transported all around him. "I just...I just don't see how we even have a choice," he muttered.

"How do you mean?" Serenity asked. "I don't think anyone would blame you if you took it easy a little bit, I...leave something for the rest of us."

Kasios sighed, slowly guiding Serenity away from the mouth of the transport ship, over to the left side, so they wouldn't be in the midst of the dock employees. "The way I see it...this galaxy is on its last chance. And people like me are the ones that decide what we do with that chance."

"I mean, from my perspective, things are going pretty darn great," Serenity disagreed. "All the amazing technological developments of the last few decades, we're...we're doing great. You're doing great."

Kasios's face twitched, shrugging. "Playing catch up, honestly. There's no way around it, we're running out of time. We've been living beyond our means for a long time now, it's going to catch up to us inside of a century."

"Well, we're...taking care of it. You, you're taking care of it. Those probe ships are out there, we're collecting data, before you know it we'll be finding brand new worlds loaded with resources. Maybe even other civilizations."

"Sure, it sounds great when you say it all like that," Kasios agreed. "But then...we actually have to find these worlds. Actually, scratch that, they have to actually exist first. And then we have to find them, verify that they have what we need, go there, bring the resources here, I...nothing's guaranteed here. And all the while, we've got a ticking clock." His face wrinkled. "Imperium reserves on _The Savery_ are deep into red alert territory, you didn't hear that from me though...the handful of imperium veins we've got out there are yielding less and less every day. We're already ripping this galaxy apart trying to find more, combing through the asteroid belt desperately, coming up with crumbs."

"Well...you're doing everything that you can," Serenity said quickly, giving a bit of a crooked smile.

"We're in a race. Not a marathon, either, in the grand scheme of things we're in a sprint," he continued. "And I can't honestly say we're winning. Because as soon as we run out of imperium, turn out the lights, the party is over. There isn't enough coal or oil in the universe to power mining trips into deep space. So these last couple generations before we hit that critical point, we need to be engaged." He swallowed down hard. "We have to have the deep space program, and we have to be preserving every last carat of imperium out there, so...as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a choice. I have to do all this, or trillions of people are going to pay for it down the line."

Serenity couldn't help but let a bit of a gloomy look linger on her face at these musings on the part of the High King. "Almost makes...something like meat supplies seem insignificant. When you put it like that."

"Honestly, I almost feel like there's more I should be doing," Kasios muttered. "N-not with me, but...Endymion. I worry about him sometimes."

"He seems great to me," Serenity protested. "He's brilliant. Really nice too. Great young man, really. I promise I'm not just saying that."

"Oh, sure, I agree with all of that. Smart, nice, well-mannered, all that. Absolutely." He gave a tiny, throaty growl. "May as well have been raised in a laboratory environment, when you think about it. I didn't have any of the conditions growing up that he did. Maybe...maybe it was too sterile, you know?"

"I'm not sure I do," Serenity admitted. "What are you concerned about?"

"He's...he's soft. Not enough rough edges to be an effective King. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but...it's hard to be a ruler sometimes. There are going to be hard decisions, I'm just...I'm a little concerned about how he's going to handle those tough decisions when the time comes. And, given the situation with imperium in this galaxy, there's no way around it, he's going to have some tough calls to make. I can tell you this, the agency is likely to be tapping into the emergency reserve during his reign, so it'll be down to the nub."

"I think he'll find a way," Serenity said. "He's too smart to not understand. He'll figure it out."

"Sometimes I find myself thinking...is there any way I could hold the throne until I'm sixty?"

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't even say that! If anyone deserves an early retirement, it's you, but you shouldn't even _consider_ ruling past your fiftieth birthday!"

"Maybe." Kasios scowled. "Maybe the galaxy needs me, maybe that's more important than me getting to sleep in a little more in the morning."

"Then step down from the throne and stay on the council," Serenity suggested. "You can do plenty of good from there."

"Alright, alright, I'm being a prick. Depression-inducing prick." He forced a smile onto his face. "Why don't we, uh...get out of here, hit the Moon Palace, get something to eat?"

"

"The Crystal Clear Bookshop," Zoisite enunciated, holding up a sheet of paper with a colored piece of art drawn on it. A round, clear crystal, a perfectly round blue circle drawn along it's outer edges, with a red book on top of it. "Moderately successful chain of bookstores, four locations in Quentin City. Current owners, lovely couple, man turning sixty-five in a couple of cycles, ready to retire and looking for an injection of cash to give them something soft to land on."

"That's a good name," Endymion mused, arms crossed over his chest, examining the piece of artwork. "The Crystal Clear Bookshop."

"That's the new name," Zoisite clarified. "Current name is, uh, A Whole New World Bookstore, we'll be rebranding it. In any case, this couple, they were looking to sell each location individually, but I'll tell you, they're just over-the-moon about getting to offload it all on one buyer!"

"You've done well, Zoisite," Kunzite commended, nodding. "This is exactly what we need to make this work."

"Yeah, great work," Endymion agreed. "On the, uh, the bookstore thing." He pointed down below his feet. "Not on this carpet, definitely not on this carpet."

"Would you like me to change the carpet?" Zoisite asked.

Endymion grinned, only to have the smile slowly fade as Zoisite stared at him, evidently waiting the Crown Prince's answer.

"Your Highness?" Zoisite prompted.

"N-no, no, no, you...you don't have to change the carpet," Endymion rushed out quickly, waving his arm at Zoisite. "Gods, no, I...the color of the carpet in your personal chamber is not my business."

"Actually, Your Majesty, it is if you want it to be," Zoisite insisted.

"No, it's not!" Endymion insisted sternly. "It's not, I...sorry, go ahead with your story, w-what's the particulars?"

"So, here's what I've got. You go to King Kasios, tell him that you want to try your hand at running a small business, get some experience in the real world, and you want your trusted general and guardian, Zoisite, to manage things." He pointed at himself. "Hey, not like I'm warding off assassins and hitmen on a daily basis, I may as well do something. Anyway, you just need a small loan to cover the purchase of the business, one million one hundred thousand creds. They're knocking three hundred thousand off the price because we're buying all four locations, and another two hundred off because we're paying in paper bills, up front. We won't be finding a much better deal than that."

"Oh, frustrating," Endymion grunted, putting his right hand up to his temple. "Do you know how much money we have, in Kunzite's safehouse under the floorboards? Over seven million creds. Just sitting there, ready to go, practically begging to be spent on something just like this!"

"Trust me, Your Highness, this purchase needs to be unimpeachable." Zoisite cleared his throat. "In any case, it's easy enough to understand why a bookstore. I'm a nerd, nerds love books." He glanced over to his right, over at his bookshelf. One of the book slots on the top shelf had been vacated, as Nephrite had extracted a grey volume from the collection, squinting down at one of the early pages. "Put that down, you'll give yourself a stroke."

Nephrite shot his younger counterpart a withering look, but gradually closed the book in his hands and slowly moved to replace it on the shelf. "Seemed silly anyway."

"Yes, I know, not enough pictures," Zoisite retorted. "Anyway, _The Crystal Clear Bookshop_ will be a store for any and all lovers of reading. Old-fashioned paper books and book chips, whatever your flavor is, we can provide. I'll make the occasional appearance for an event, everyone come and see the smartest man on Earth, pick up some reading material while you're in, you know how it is. It'll be a booming success immediately, profits will expand like a blowfish, and, at certain choice intervals, I will personally see to the occasional...fabricated purchase. Falsified inventory lists, fake receipts, just enough to bolster the profits by five percent. First year, I'd say we'll be able to wash...almost a million creds."

"Almost a million?" Endymion repeated.

"J-just the first year," Zoisite assured him. "It'll be such a big success, we'll open up new locations and expand the existing ones. I mean, it's a bookstore owned by the Crown Prince and one of his most trusted generals, it's going to draw a lot of attention. Give it time, the chain might become one of the biggest book distributors on Earth."

"This is going to be...a lot of money," Endymion reminded him. "A lot of money, very quickly, might I add."

"Well, you have me running things, so I'll see to it that all the right business decisions are made," Zoisite said.

"Your Highness, I think this is the best way to go," Kunzite chimed in. "I suggest you speak to your father as soon as possible about the loan, I imagine it should be a fairly simple matter."

"Alright then." Endymion clapped his hands together a few times, slowly turning towards Nephrite. "So. Now we just need a steady stream of money for Zoisite to wash. How are we looking?"

"Everyone has been informed and given time to prepare. At your word, over eight hundred individuals are prepared to begin selling imperium to street-level customers in cities all across the globe, with a further hundred plus handling logistics." Nephrite's expression remained stoic and flat as he spoke to his charge. "I can have them selling tomorrow if I get the product."

Endymion turned to look at Kunzite. "I think we can arrange for that."

"Will do," Kunzite said. "But, Your Highness, from now on, you're hands off. That's how this works. Your generals will handle every step of this process from here on out. As far as you're concerned, this imperium business isn't actually happening."

"I want updates on our progress," Endymion countered. "At first, at least. I need to make sure this is working effectively before I consider turning my attention away from it. I want updates on status every three days until this is stable and reliable."

"V-very well," Kunzite conceded. "Just, your child is due in a few cycles, that should be your priority and focus."

"I assure you, it is," Endymion replied. "Well, good job everyone, we'll be meeting again soon."

"

"A bookstore?" Serenity sat up, extending her legs out on the bed in front of her, propping herself up with her arms behind her. "Why do you need to run a bookstore?"

"Well, I'm not running it, I'm just financing it and helping make some macro decisions."

Endymion was sitting at his desk, holding a tiny, thin, yellow paintbrush in his right hand. A small collection of colored paints in little dishes was spread out in front of him, with a wooden instrument held up in a vice in front of him. A rod, perhaps three or four finger-lengths long, with a thin middle and rounded bulbs on either end, made of a dark brown wood. One of the bulbed ends was painted with sections of light blue, and Endymion was now using a soft green to fill in most of the spaces between. With a delicate, light stroking, he carefully placed little lines of paint onto the wooden object.

"Why? You're...you're a royal, why do we need money? Are we going through some sort of money crisis that I'm not aware of?" Serenity asked.

"I want some real-world experience. Business experience. I know all of the theories from my education, I know how it's supposed to work, I've done...countless readings about successes and failures, but I want to try to do it for myself." Endymion dipped the paintbrush into the green dish in front of him, wiping it off on the edge a couple times.

"I, I just...you know, I want you around as much as possible for the first few years, at least." Serenity looked down at her stomach. "Given our situation, there's no good reason why you shouldn't be able to, and I don't want something like you running a business to get in the way of that."

"It won't," Endymion promised, making a rough representation of the southeast continent of Earth on the wooden sphere. "Zoisite's running the day-to-day concerns, I'm just overseeing things from a distance. Not going to be any kind of time sink."

Serenity nodded. "Alright." She leaned over a bit, towards Endymion's handiwork. "So, are you sure that's thick enough? The bulbs, I mean? If it breaks, the shards could be dangerous."

"I'm quite confident a baby won't be able to break it," Endymion replied. "Unless he, or she, comes out of the womb ready to pump iron."

"Pump...iron?" Serenity repeated slowly, a quizzical look on her face.

"L-lifting weights, like...you know, dumbbells?" Endymion glanced at his wife out of the corner of his eyes. "You've never heard that phrase before?"

"Nope," Serenity said, shaking her head. "Must be an Earth thing." She squinted over at Endymion's brush strokes. "So, that's the Earth?"

"Right," Endymion answered. "Tiny little globe, we call it. Globe of the Earth. Blue is water, green is land, I'll get a little white for the north pole." He pointed the tip of his brush at the thin middle section of the wooden object. "I was thinking this rod part, the middle, would be black, with little specks. Like space, you know? And then…" He indicated the other bulb at the opposite end of the object. "Grey, with some craters, and you've got yourself the Moon."

"But...they're both the same size," Serenity mused. "The Earth is way bigger than the Moon."

Endymion gave a little snort. "Okay, maybe it's not to scale, but...it's a toy for a baby, I think it'll be fine."

"I don't want my child growing up thinking the Earth and Moon are the same size," Serenity remarked. "That'd be embarrassing, I...you know, I thought the Earth and Moon were the same size until I was six!"

"Really?" Endymion teased, finishing with the continent of a landmass and moving onto the next one.

"It wasn't my fault!" Serenity insisted. "I had these toys, these balls, they looked like all the planets of the galaxy, and there was one for the moon. And they were all the same size, what else was I supposed to think?"

"Okay, then, I'll make extra sure to...inform our child from a very young age that this rattle isn't to scale, and that it's not an accurate representation of the size of either orbital body." Endymion rolled his eyes.

"And you're sure it'll be safe for the baby to play with?" she asked. "The paints, the wood, all of it."

"I wouldn't even consider letting my child play with something that hadn't been vetted a million times," Endymion said sternly. "Come on, you know me."

Serenity nodded. "So. If it's a boy, what do you think about Helios?"

Endymion's face tightened up a little bit. "You want me to name my son after my horse?"

"I thought you might like it," Serenity said, flopping back on the bed, resting her head on the pillows. "I mean, you like the name enough to name your horse that."

"No, that's...that's weird!" Endymion shook his head. "I'm not naming my son after my horse, that's...no, no thank you."

"What about Endymion?" she suggested. "Just, Endymion the Second?"

Endymion grimaced. "Maybe. I mean, I like it, but it's a little unimaginative, isn't it? I feel like we can do better." He pursed his lips together tightly. "What about...Aetolus?"

"That's not bad," Serenity said. "I could go for that." She swallowed down hard. "O-obviously, if it's a girl, I'd like to...you know. If you're fine with that, I'd like to just...continue the tradition."

"Oh, of course, no problem!" Endymion enthused. "I mean, great, let's have another Serenity in my life, sign me up!"

"Thank you," Serenity said. "And, you're really good at woodstuff, that's really cool."

"Wood-working," Endymion corrected. "That's what it's called. And yes, my tutors over the years often complimented my abilities here. I like it. It's relaxing."

"How do you get the wood hollow like that?" She asked. "And then get it into a perfect round bulb?"

"With great effort," Endymion answered. "I'm going to make a whole set of toys for the baby. This rattle is just the first piece."

"Wow, that's really cool!" Serenity enthused, tilting her head a bit to look at the rattle as it started to take shape. "I mean, you don't have to do that, surely—"

"But I want to do it. My child is going to grow up playing with toys that _I_ made." He shrugged. "I like that, you know? Because...because right now, there's nothing more important to me than how I'm going to raise my child."

He turned back to the partially painted rattle, running the brush tip along the bulb.

"

"Alright, everyone, order, order!"

The darkened, brick-based room was a crowded house tonight, just over thirty people crammed together in an enclosed space. Windowless and plain, outside of a wooden crate in the southeast corner, the din of conversation within went silent immediately on a tall, broad-chested man with short blond hair demanding attention. He got up on top of the wooden crate, getting head and shoulders up above everyone else.

"Well, word has come down. This last half-cycle of preparation is about to bear fruits, so I sincerely hope that everyone here was paying close attention in recent days! Now, starting tonight, we will be selling small quantities of pure, refined imperium on the streets of Pinkton, Minot, Nikk City, Westerton, basically every city and town within a five hundred dolicho radius. We play things safe, we keep to carefully defined locations, we take it slow. If you find yourself coming up with a last minute moral objection, or cold feet, the door is there, use it, head home, forget that this meeting ever happened, go about your life. You will still be a valued member of Nephrite's network of spies, you'll just be left out of this particular endeavor."

He paused, giving everyone several beats to take his invitation to depart the room. Nobody budged, however.

"Very good! Now, the stuff that you will be selling is unlike anything the galaxy has ever seen before. Trust me, this beats the hell out of trying to go door-to-door selling sets of knives. Everyone in the galaxy wants and needs what you're selling. And you're selling the purest strain of it in existence, at a discounted rate. These customers are going to be on you like flies on shit once they realize what you're selling." The blond man crossed his arms over his chest. "Now, street value of this product is two point six million creds per libra, yes, you heard that right. So two hundred and seventeen thousand per uncia, or ounce, as you'll likely be referring to it when you're out dealing." He clapped his hands together. "One hundred and forty-four carats to an ounce, so fifteen hundred creds a carat."

One of the present attendees near the front raised his hand in the air.

"Go ahead, Nestor," he prompted, waving his right hand towards him.

"Fifteen hundred for one carat? Captain Cyril, people aren't walking around with that kind of scratch on them, not usually anyway. And who would pay that much for one carat of imperium?"

"Mm." Cyril nodded. "You have a point. Our product is so good, so pure, so potent, we'll be selling it in fractions of carats. Thirds, fifths, tenths. We'll be using a microscopic laser to cut the imperium up into fine enough amounts. And anyone looking to purchase unregulated imperium is going to have a reader, so they'll be able to verify what you're selling is worth it." He cleared his throat. "Now then! You're gonna walk out of here with one-tenth of an uncia, value twenty one thousand six hundred. You go work your designated streets, you sell to your friends, your neighbors, you conduct your business in whatever way you want. You give a couple shreds away for free, you flush them down a latrine, you shove some up your ass or snort it through your nostrils, none of my business. What is my business, is that you bring me twenty thousand. Whatever you make beyond that is yours, but I'm getting my twenty thousand."

"Wooowee!" a voice from the back of the room cried out, breaking the business-like tension of the room. "You know, I didn't take this position thinking I'd get rich, but...I'll take it!"

"That's right!" Cyril agreed. "And, according to the higher-ups, there is always more product. Always. So, not only will you be serving General Nephrite, you'll be making a lot of money if you apply yourself! Just stay in your lane, last thing we need is a turf war right as we're starting out. We're going to want...three or four people working in a relatively small area, so nobody feels isolated and alone when they're working. And, listen to this last part very closely, might be the most important thing! There's no way around it, in this line of work, you may very well find yourself under arrest at some point. So, here's how we deal with that!"

Cyril reached into the pockets of his black jacket with both hands, withdrawing two tiny glass jars from either pocket. Both held a small collection of imperium shreds, the product clear as glass. He shook them both around in the air. "In my left hand, I have a glowing little angel, wearing a halo on his head and playing a golden harp! This right here, twenty carats of imperium. In my right hand, however, I've got a red devil, pitchfork and horns ripping and raring to go, and this devil is out to destroy your life. Twenty-four carats, also know as a sextula." He held both glass jars up high above his head. "Not much of a difference, right? You might even think there's no difference. And I'm here to tell you, you are dead wrong! There could not possibly be a bigger difference."

He swung his right hand down to his side, leaving the left one up. "Twenty carats, you get caught by the authorities holding that much, even if they catch you selling, it's a Class D offense on Earth. They'll take you in, stick you in a cell, interrogate you, and you don't say a word. They're gonna threaten you, gonna promise all sorts of bad, horrible, terrible things, every trick in the book. And you're not going to even open your mouth. Because a Class D offense can't stick you with any more than two cycles in prison and a twenty-five hundred cred fine. You do your time, when you get out you'll be compensated, and you lay low for awhile." He lifted his right arm back up, swinging his left hand down. "Now, say you get caught with this. These meaningless, barely noticeable, irrelevant four extra carats means you get stuck with a Class C. Two year sentence, minimum. Could be as much as five. And then, you've got a real problem. So, you will not, ever, under any circumstance, be carrying more than twenty carats on your person. This way, we stay one step ahead of the authorities, nobody has their life ruined, and we remain humming like a well-oiled business."

With a quick jerk of his arms, he shoved both little jars back into his pockets.

"Now, I can't think of anything else to say, other than happy selling, and let's make some money!"


	15. Gold in the Streets

Chapter 15: Gold in the Streets

The streets of Sumarian were a busy place, even at night, with hundreds of pedestrians moving about from shop to shop at all times. Easiest thing in the world to blend in amongst the crowd, even staying out all night wouldn't draw suspicion. It was a pretty great place to try to sell imperium. Basil felt as if he might just have lucked into prime real estate for his illicit deeds, in fact, with a constant stream of potential customers and easy cover for his presence.

Wearing a wool cap on his head and a large brown jacket to combat the cold, Basil was sitting back on a green bench right in between a public clothes-washing business and a massage parlor. His eyes lazily followed street cars ripping across concrete in front of him, occasionally tilting up to look at hovering, flying shuttles zipping about in the air.

"Hey there."

Basil whipped his head to the left, looking up at a short, skinny man with darkly-tanned skin and black hair. Looking a little uncomfortable, hands in his pockets, glancing around, bouncing up and down on his heels, he gave off the aura of someone highly uncomfortable.

"Can I help you?" Basil asked, stretching his arms out along the top edge of the backrest to the bench.

"Nice, uh...nice jacket," he replied uneasily. "Pretty night, huh?"

Basil rolled his eyes. "I guess."

"Uh, hey, so...one of my friends, I was a couple blocks north hanging out with him, getting some lumber for a little project in my backyard, and he said that...that he was here washing some clothes earlier tonight, and he said that you were the man. Like...you know, the man!" He rubbed his hands together in front of him. "I was...I was wondering if you're still the man."

Basil blinked a few times, shifting around on the bench. "Am I the man?"

"Yeah, that's what I wanna know, are you still the man? I-if you're not, that's totally cool, I appreciate that, but...if you are still the man, maybe we could do business."

"What exactly are you asking for?" Basil asked sternly. "Nothing's happening until you ask me, exactly, what you want."

"Um…" the man twisted his head left and right, nervously eyeing the dozens of people milling about the sidewalk. "C-can you…" He stepped over to the right side of the bench, turning his body around and squatting down to sit.

"Whoa, whoa, no, stand up!" Basil said, putting his right leg out on the bench. "You don't sit down, nuh-uh."

"Okay, I…" he twisted back around, bending down a bit towards Basil. "Can I buy some imperium from you?" he asked in a hushed voice. "I heard you've got the good stuff. I've got six hundred creds, and I've had some unexpected expenses this month, could really do with saving a little on energy."

Slowly, Basil got to his feet. "Let's see it."

The prospective customer reached into the pockets of his jacket, frantically feeling about, before his left hand whipped out a folded-up collection of paper bills. "Uh, y-yeah." He fanned out the currency. "Four hundreds, I got...three fifties here, two twenties and a ten."

"Alley behind the massage parlor, five secundas," Basil said quickly before walking off, down the sidewalk, towards the west. The man quickly pocketed the money, then took off in the opposite direction, the two new acquaintances disappearing into crowds.

"

Basil reached out, taking the collection of ten assorted money bills out of the man's hand, quickly looking them over before pocketing them. "Just for future reference, when you're buying unregulated imperium, skip the wordplay. You just ask for it. If you can't come out and say what you want, we can't do business."

"I-I just thought—"

"It's for my own protection," Basil explained. "You try to use all these...innuendos and implications, you sound like an undercover law enforcer trying to get me arrested. You ask directly, it's a load off my mind." He reached out with his left hand, pinching a tiny paper envelope between his fingers. The man snatched it, delicately prying the edge open and peering down into it. "Four-tenths of a carat."

"Trust me man, I'm no booter," he said, pulling a small metallic, rod-shaped instrument out of his pocket and sticking it down into the envelope.

"Well, undercover lawmen can't directly ask someone to perform an illegal activity and then make arrests based off that activity," Basil explained. "And also, don't tell me your life story." He shook his head quickly. "Trust me, you're not that interesting, I don't care."

"S-sorry." The man pocketed the reader, then closed up the envelope. "T-thank you, man. I'm happy."

"Alright, bounce," Basil instructed. He turned down the alley and quickly stalked off.

"

Basil extended his right hand out, holding the mouth of a white paper bag in his grip. Cyril took the simple container, unrolling the top and looking down inside it.

"Very, very nice," he applauded. "You work fast."

"Got a good piece of territory," Basil replied. "Lot of potential repeat customers, maybe."

"Wouldn't exactly count on it," Cyril said. "This imperium, it lasts. The average person buying this stuff is going to get a lot of mileage out of it."

"Well, a lot of them are telling their friends too," Basil reasoned. "I think I'll be selling a lot faster as time goes by."

Cyril reached his hand down into the sack, pulling out a wad of loose currency bills.

"Just be careful." Cyril went over to a square machine in the corner of the small, darkened room, straightening the pile of money out the best he could.

"Careful is my middle name," Basil insisted. "I don't ever keep the product on me. Me and Xander, we've got a system, we watch each other's backs."

Cyril fed the large collection of bills into a thin opening on the side of the device, resting all the money in a trough-like little space. Immediately, it buzzed to life, and began whisking the bills inside, one by one. A little screen on the side of the machine began to rapidly display a series of numbers, counting up.

"Any problems?" Cyril asked.

"Nothing, Captain," Basil answered. "People seem perfectly happy to mind their own business, occasional law enforcer walks by and ignores me. Downright easy. So, uh, am I the first one to report back with cheddar?"

"Third." Cyril watched the little red digits tick upward rapidly, going up past ten thousand and continuing. "A couple people got real lucky, made a fat bulk sale."

A handful of beats later, the machine stopped whirring, the little readout on the side displaying a final reading of '22,000'.

"Twenty-two large?" Cyril marveled. "You, uh...gouging a little bit there, Basil, buddy?"

Basil shrugged. "Hey, if I can squeeze out an extra five or ten creds here and there, who am I to turn that opportunity down? Crazy gangster gotta make a living."

"Alright!" Cyril tapped a couple of buttons on a numerical pad next to the screen, and a handful of bills began to spit out of the machine on the opposite side. "That's two large back to you, try to keep it a little low-key."

After a moment, Cyril grabbed the stack of money and reached it out towards Basil, who quickly snatched it.

"Three floors up, room number four," Cyril said. "Pick up another batch of carats, come find me when you've sold that one." He reached his closed fist out towards Basil, who quickly reached his own fist out and tapped their knuckles together.

"

Cyril slowly braked his speeder bike to a halt, coming to a stop over the moss-covered dirt that weaved between the massive oak trees. A few dolichos outside of Pinkton, the imposing forest provided good cover for activities that needed to be kept secret.

With a glance up at the foliage high above his head, he jumped off the side of the hovering bike, giving the handle a twist to shut it off. He went around behind the bike, boots crunching into the dirt and moss below, reaching up to grab a large leather sack, the end held tightly shut by a series of straps clipped in place. Tossing it over his shoulder, he trudged off deeper into the woods, marching maybe twenty or so paces before arriving at a hollowed out tree stump that rose up to his chest.

He looked down inside the natural little structure, finding large collection of branches and leaves. Reaching down and prying a couple of the branches up, he tossed the bag down into the stump.

"

Prying a couple of the branches up, Jason reached down and grabbed one of the straps on the leather bag hiding within the stump. Heaving it out, he threw a quick look around the forest surrounding him before working to undo the straps that kept the sack closed. Fingers working quickly, he soon had enough slack in the straps to pry the opening up a tad. Just enough to peek down inside and see a large collection of money bundles.

Re-sealing the sack, Jason jogged back over to his bike, holding the bag in his right hand.

"

Jason dropped the sack to the floor in front of Nephrite, the brown-haired general glancing down at it briefly before returning his gaze back to Jason. The red-haired lieutenant of Nephrite's spy network was one of the very few allowed to know, much less visit, one of his safehouses. A simple, underground trio of chambers, formerly a storage room for farm animal feed, it had been reconfigured and secured to serve its new purpose as a potential hiding spot and equipment storage for Nephrite and his men.

"Two point two eight million," Jason said. "You can count it, it's all there."

"I'm sure it is," Nephrite replied, putting his left elbow up on the armrest of his cushioned chair. "That would mean they've gone through the whole libra, so make sure they get more."

"Absolutely," Jason agreed. "Our supply chain is working great so far."

"We could work on our efficiency, maybe, I just don't know how yet. This time between pickups and dropoffs, it's dead time for the dealers, if we could speed things up a bit on getting them new product we'd sell faster." He shrugged. "Leave it to smarter minds than me." He nodded over at Jason. "Stash it."

Jason lifted the bag up onto his shoulder and toted it over into the right corner of the room, kneeling down and reaching down to pry up some of the floorboards. He lifted up a small collection of wooden planks, revealing a small hole underneath the floor, one leather bag already resting in the hiding spot.

"Very nice," Jason said, tossing the sack into the hole, letting it rest atop the first, then began replacing the planks.

"

"It is truly an honor to be meeting you here today." A middle-aged woman wearing a white blouse and orange skirt bowed low. Her pale skin was contrasted with her dark blue hair, falling just past her shoulders. "And even being considered for this position is truly the honor of a lifetime."

In Endymion's bedroom, the Prince and Princess were seated next to each other on a loveseat, a plush, well-cushioned chair just big enough for two people. The woman stood before them, holding her hands together in front of her waist.

"And it's wonderful to meet you, Kristen," Serenity said, gesturing towards a chair that was right next to the middle-aged woman. "Take a seat."

Kristen obliged, Endymion holding a sheet of paper up in his hands.

"Alright, Kristen, I have your previous work experience here, it...it looks pretty good," Endymion said. "Now, you'll be working with Serenity more than me, so I'll let her handle most of this, but I just want to ask. Says here that you served as a midwife for Lady Aurelia of Uranus, that's...the wife of Marcus, the retired champion handball midfielder?"

"Yes," she answered. "Helped her through childbirth and assisted in taking care of the child for two years after he was born."

"That's quite a feather in the cap," Endymion mused.

"But I must say, I've never been placed in charge of helping raise royalty before," she continued. "This will be my greatest honor yet, if I'm hired."

A loud popping sound caused Kristen to jump up a bit, twisting her head around to look out to the doors to the balcony.

"D-don't mind that," Endymion said quickly. "They're installing an elevator out on the balcony, straight down to the garage."

"Did you like it on Mercury? It said that you've spent the last eight years on Mercury," Serenity spoke up.

"Yes, no shortage of wealthy families looking for an experienced midwife on Mercury," Kristen explained. "Served ten different families in those eight years, most of them were happy to dismiss me a cycle or two after the birth."

"Well, I'm looking for assistance beyond the birth of the child," Serenity said. Endymion wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "For a few years, probably. As long as you're willing to stay on. Money's no problem, and you get to live here."

"I'll stay on as long as you'll have me," Kristen said. "If you want, I'll care for your child until he's a senior citizen." She gave small smile. "Or she. You don't know yet?"

"No, not yet," Serenity replied. "You've got plenty of experience with both boys and girls, I saw that, so that's good."

"If you end up having twins, I've got plenty of experience in that regard as well. I've served women who have given birth to quadruplets before, more than happy to help raise multiple children at once. When I was in my twenties, I worked in a daycare with as many as twenty kids at once."

Serenity reached over, snatching the paper from her husband and quickly scanning it. "Now, understand, I am going to raise my own child. I have no intention of spending my life in meetings, or going out every night to party. Once this baby is born, that's my priority in life for the next eighteen years, minimum. I'm not looking for someone to raise my child for me, I just...I need help."

Kristen emphatically nodded. "Not a problem, Your Highness. I've been doing this long enough to know the difference between being a midwife and being a surrogate mother."

"Now, given that this is a future King or Queen, there _is_ going to be more than one midwife," Serenity continued. "Maybe five, six. You have experience working with a team?"

"Well, I've worked with a partner before, just one, so…"

Endymion began to zone out of the conversation, blinking and politely smiling forward, in the general direction of the prospective midwife. The voices around him were being blocked out by a dull buzzing in his ears, allowing him to focus on the thoughts flowing through his mind.

Yes, hiring a good midwife obviously mattered, he knew that much. Making sure that Serenity had access to the best help when raising their child was important to him. And yet, right now, he just couldn't push the anticipation out of his head.

Truth be told, no matter what happened, they were guaranteed to get the best midwives in the galaxy. The only variable was how long it would take, how many interviews they would have to go through. One way or another, Serenity would have the best.

Endymion couldn't help but wonder about things that actually involved some risk and possibility of failure. His thoughts kept fluttering to the men and women he commanded, out on the streets of Earth, selling miniscule little portions of imperium for money. Would they be able to actually sell it? Would the chain of supply function as intended? Would things move fast enough to be worth their time? How many would get arrested? He was merely a handful of minutas away from his first update, his first indication of the viability of this business.

What he would learn later that day could inform everything about the future of the Earth Kingdom, the effectiveness of his eventual reign as King, and the short-term future of the Moon. How could he possibly concern himself with whether this particular woman would be brought on as a midwife, when the alternative was another similar woman being brought on instead?

He thought about the bookstore that Zoisite was putting the finishing touches on the purchase of. The out-of-date spaceship, sitting in a junkyard in the less fortunate part of town, ready to start pumping out super pure imperium fit for consumption by all manners of technology across the galaxy. There was just so much going on, so much to think about, he—

"Hey!"

Endymion ripped back into the present so suddenly, it almost hurt his head. He looked over at Serenity, who was giving him a rather frustrated look, face hardened.

"I'm sorry?" Endymion quickly burped out.

"Um, Kristen was asking how close her room would be to ours, if we were to bring her on," Serenity said, clearly annoyed. "You know. So she can know how long it would take for her to get from her room to ours."

"O-oh." He cleared his throat. "We can arrange for you to have a room right down the hall. There to here in less than a secunda, twenty beats maybe. How fast is your running speed?"

Kristen gave a confused look, blinking over at the Crown Prince of Earth.

"T-that's a joke!" Endymion exclaimed. "It's fine, it's okay. It's...it's a joke."

"Ah," Kristen said, giving a quick nod and curt smile.

"

"Do you not want to be here for the interviews?" Serenity asked. "I mean, I get it, you might not find it that interesting, it's more about me than you, so if you don't—"

"No, no, it definitely involves me!" Endymion protested, putting his hand out towards his wife. "Of course I care! I find it very interesting! These interviews, these people, they're going to be part of raising my first child! That's very interesting."

"I'm not mad, I just...if you trust me to make these decisions by myself, then I can just interview them on my own." Serenity sat down on the edge of the bed. "Look, it's just...kind of embarrassing." She rolled her eyes. "I'm the one who's supposed to space out! I'm the daydreamer! You're the one who stays grounded and thinks about everything."

"It won't happen again," Endymion assured her, pursing his lips. "I promise, I just...I got distracted. I was thinking about some stuff going on with Neptune. Some of our trade agreements, I've been reviewing them recently."

Serenity nodded. "Okay, if you say so. I really liked her, and I don't think she was that optimistic when she saw you space out like that. I felt kind of bad for her."

Endymion swung his arms around awkwardly. "Sorry. I promise I care. It's my child too. If you like her, we'll definitely bring her on."

"If you're sure. But really, are you okay?" she asked, tilting her head awkwardly at him. "It's so not like you to...zone out like that."

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Uh, I'm gonna...going to go work out with Nephrite." He pointed over at the door to the bedroom awkwardly. "We'll schedule more interviews this afternoon, we'll want at least five total. So, we should take a look at at least twenty, make the picks from there."

Serenity gave a pleasant smile, then fell back against the bed with a little _poomph_. "And let's get at least one or two of them hired quick, I'm getting to the stage where I could use some specialized help."

Endymion gave a quick nod, returning her smile, and then quickly scurried off to the door.

"Oh, one more thing!"

Endymion froze, hand halfway to the doorknob, looking over at his wife. "Hmm?"

"Have you seen my anklet?" she asked. She pointed down at her ankle. "It's missing, I took it off to take a bath and it was gone when I got back."

"Um...this is the one that Mars gave you?" Endymion asked.

"Well, the pearl on it," Serenity explained. "I don't want to ask her for another one, so...any chance you moved it?"

Endymion shook his head. "No, sorry, not me. I'll keep an eye out for it."

With that, he grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, stepping out of his bedroom out into the outside hallway.

"

Nephrite's thumb pressed into a large button on a black remote, causing a dull little _thunk_ to sound off from the door to his chambers.

"Alright, we're secure," Nephrite said, setting the remote down on the side table by his bed.

"You know, we really need to remodel this part of the palace, get you guys some real rooms." Endymion glanced about at the tight, claustrophobically close walls on either side of him. "These little broom closets are no way to show gratitude to my generals."

"Waste of space. And time," Nephrite said simply.

"I agree," Kunzite followed up. "If it was up to me, my room would be a large coffin to sleep in and nothing else."

"Okay, okay, I'm dying to know, so let's cut right to it," Endymion said, squaring his body up towards Nephrite. "Let's hear it."

Nephrite cleared his throat, glancing down at the floor. "O-okay, Your Highness. First, let me just say that...obviously, this is our first live test. Things are going to be slow at first."

"Obviously," Endymion agreed.

"I think that, once we get a feel for which areas are good, which ones are bad, what the best, most efficient procedure is, things like that, our selling speed will probably...triple. Give us a cycle to get a feel for things, maybe even more." Nephrite grimaced a bit.

"Come on, just give me some numbers," the Crown Prince urged.

Nephrite bit the inside of his cheek. "W-well...officially. As in, confirmed, turned in, guaranteed, locked in...we've sold and collected on three libras."

Endymion flinched back a bit, eyes going wide.

"Three?" Kunzite repeated. "As in...thirty-six uncias? Of imperium, sold?"

"O-officially," Nephrite clarified. "The actual number is probably closer to...seven, eight. But only three of my sergeants have pitched in their money, the others are still selling theirs off."

"Seven libras in three days?" Endymion croaked out.

"There are...six point eighty-four million creds under the floorboards in one of my safehouses. My understanding is that, over the next two days, that number should grow to around sixteen million. A few of the distribution nets seem to have landed in, shall we say, infertile lands? So, they're taking awhile to move the product. We'll have to decide what we want to do there, we don't want to give up on a particular area too quickly, but we'll obviously make some decisions about which places aren't worth the time." He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right foot. "I think that...give us ten more days, we'll have moved everything you've given us."

Endymion reached his right hand up, pointing his index finger at Nephrite's face. "You're going to move...twenty-three libras of imperium in...thirteen days?"

"Estimated," Nephrite emphasized. "And again, I fully expect things to accelerate as time goes by, once this network really gets humming, again, stuff should move three times as fast, if not more!"

"Buddy!" Endymion closed the small gap between him and his general, clapping him on the shoulder. "You're the man! I...buddy, I knew it would move, but...right from the start, it's pumping like that?! Man, why were we ever dealing with that crazy orange-haired bitch?!"

Nephrite's body relaxed, shoulders drooping slightly.

"I mean, you were...you were actually worried?" Endymion asked. "You seemed a little nervous, what were you afraid of? "

"I just didn't know what your expectations were," Nephrite said. "I thought that you were expecting that we had already sold everything you gave us, Your Highness."

"N-no, definitely not!" Endymion wrapped his arms around Nephrite's torso, pulling the general into a one-sided hug, as Nephrite simply remained stiff as Endymion yanked him in. "Nephrite, this is awesome! I was coming in here ready to hear anything, I…" he broke away from the hug gradually, slowly looking over at Kunzite behind him. "I...shit, we need more product."

"I was thinking that," Kunzite agreed.

"Oh, um, also. No arrests. As far as I know, anyway," Nephrite tossed out. "So far, pretty clean. This might just work."

"Okay, okay, okay," Endymion said frantically. "Kunzite." He emphatically pointed over at his senior general. "Remember what we talked about? Getting eight setups capable of running simultaneously on _The Qesem_?"

"I'll start procuring equipment right away, Your Highness," Kunzite quickly replied to the implied order.

"Equipment and supplies," Endymion said. "As much as you can get together. We're going to have to seriously boost our production."

"I'll get right on that," Kunzite agreed. "But I will need a few days, obtaining all of that equipment will be suspicious unless I travel from town to town to do it."

"As fast as you can though," Endymion urged. "I never thought we'd be selling this fast already, if I had any idea that this might happen, I would have been on this days ago." He turned back to Nephrite. "Your boys keep selling. There might be a little bit of downtime, but we'll be getting more product to you as soon as we can."

"Understood, Your Majesty," Nephrite answered.

"

"The third arrest took place in Banktown. A good samaritan reported a suspicious individual hanging around close to a school, a couple of law enforcers kept an eye on him, and managed to catch him in the act of selling."

A blue little light slowly sprung to life at a northwestern point on the eastern continent of the large map of the Earth being projected onto the back wall of the conference room. The long wooden table in the middle of the room was packed to near-capacity, nine of the twelve council members seated around it. A man wearing a fancy dress tunic was standing up at the head of the table, by the large map.

"Oh, shit," Kasios murmured under his breath, frowning up at the map, which now had three little blue lights, each of them spread out across the finely-detailed representation of the Earth. Two were on the eastern continent, with a third on the southern part of the west continent.

"You thinking he's back in business?" Naxos asked, turning to his right to look at Kasios in the neighboring seat.

"What else is there to think?" Kasios grunted. "And that's not even the worst part of it, this jagoff's gone regional!"

"Well, that's speculation," Galen tried to ease from the top right seat of the table. "Some of the stuff that popped up could be left over from a batch that was synthesized from before."

"That's a long, rickety bridge you're asking me to cross," Kasios argued. He pointed up towards the map. "None of those points are anywhere close to any of the places this imperium was popping up before, it's asking way too much to even consider that." The High King sighed. "It lines up, our...Tuxedo Mask went dark for awhile, and now he's back with a much bigger distribution network. And, presumably, a lot more product."

"I'm inclined to agree," Naxos followed up, turning back to look down the table. "Anything to say about the three arrested individuals, Captain Marcellus?"

Marcellus grimaced. "Not much. And I doubt that will change. They are nobodies, as far as we can tell, no past record. All three were carrying ninety-nine percent pure product. And two of them were caught with less than a carat on their persons, so...Class E, we will be lucky if we can hold them for twenty days. I doubt they will be saying anything."

"What about the third one?" Kasios asked, leaning forward.

"Well, we managed to follow him to where he was hiding his stash, so we had a little better luck there. Unfortunately, it was just eleven carats, so we are still stuck with a Class D charge." The captain shrugged. "I can not imagine he will roll over for—"

"Hey, Captain, I feel like I'm listening to an old Priestess Lady from Mars, how about some contractions?" Kasios snapped. "You know what a contraction is? You know how to use them?"

The room quickly made the High King the focus of attention, his outburst breaking the formal tone of the meeting immediately.

"Your...Your Highness, it is not—"

"Contractions were invented to save time, make it easier for everyone, make conversation flow better, why would anyone want anyone to _not_ use them?!" Kasios continued. "Does anybody in this room have a problem with Captain Marcellus using contractions?! I know I don't!"

An extended silence, everyone staring at the High King, whose face had gone slightly red.

"Your Highness, he's just trying to follow etiquette." Galen swallowed down a lump in his throat.

"I...I know, I know!" Kasios said, shaking his head. "But honestly, it's more distracting than anything else, so...you have my permission! Contract away!"

"Yes, Your Highness," Marcellus answered. "I apologize."

"It's fine, it's fine, I...no, I'm sorry." Kasios gave his head a violent shake. "I'm not mad at you, I'm sorry, I'm just...I wanted to get this prick before he expanded! Now he's...looks like he's selling everywhere on Earth." He sighed. "Please, continue your debriefing, go ahead."

"U-uh...um…alright." Marcellus tugged at the collar of his tunic. "In any case, it's very rare for an imperium dealer to roll over unless you can threaten them with a Class C or higher. So, other than tiny quantities of highly pure imperium and a pocket full of creds, I'm afraid we're not likely to get very much out of these dealers."

"Alright," Kasios said firmly. "Well, eventually, we'll snatch someone with more than a sextula, and then maybe we can learn something about this guy."

"Well, can we really count on that?" Orion asked, leaning in a bit towards the table to look down over at Kasios. "This product, it's really a game-changer. No need for a street dealer to carry more than a tiny bit."

"We only need a tiny bit," Kasios objected. "Twenty-four carats, how hard can it be? We need to find one jerkoff with twenty-four carats, I passed a bladder stone two years ago that weighed more than that!"

"I _sincerely_ hope not," Galen muttered, wincing a little.

"Let's...let's send word out to law enforcement agencies on Earth. All of them, tell them to ramp up street patrols and crack down on imperium dealers. Bump up the reward for information leading to arrests. We'll keep shaking every branch, eventually a big player will fall out. Soon as we catch one, we load up the cannons for a full five year sentence." Kasios tapped his fingertips along the table surface. "Maybe more, if we can pin other charges onto him. Every dirty trick in the book. He'll cough up."

"I don't know, Your Highness," Naxos countered, again slowly turning his body towards the High King. "Who knows if these dealers even know anything that can help us? They could have no idea who the supplier or the chemist is, even small smuggling operations use blind drops and pickups."

"Okay, well, I'm not really seeing another option," Kasios said coolly. "Come on, this clown just started selling again in the last...what, few days? Not even a cycle, let's...let's just keep making arrests until we find something worth knowing, stick to the plan before we panic. Let's remember how this guy dresses in public, how smart can he really be? He'll mess up eventually."

"Uh...if I may, Your Majesty...for you in particular, there are other options," Jorja interjected from directly across Kasios at the table.

Kasios gave a little scowl, quickly erasing it from his face as soon as it had popped up. "Well, we can maybe discuss those options when it's appropriate to do so. For now, we stick to Plan A. We make arrests, we interrogate, and we eventually track them down." He lightly pounded his right hand on the table surface. "Nobody wanted this prick to go regional less than I did, believe me, I fought like hell to nip him in the bud. But it's what we got now. Ultimately, nothing changes. We are _still_ going to take him down. It's just gotten a little harder now."

"

Princess Venus pushed her right index finger forward along the surface of the flat screen in her left hand, causing the projected image to shoot forward and show up on a giant screen on the wall. A few columns of black text on a white background.

"I think our boy is back in business," Venus mused, putting her curled finger below her lip, eyeballs zipping back and forth along the giant screen before her.

"My Princess, don't get your hopes up before you have confirmation." An attractive blonde woman walked up next to Venus's seat, crouching down a bit so she was on approximately the same level as the member of the Venus royal family. "It's highly likely that Tuxedo Mask has already retired, for one of many possible reasons. His mere existence was intruding on the territory of many other long-running smuggling operations. Not hard at all to imagine they knocked him off."

"No, no no," Venus protested, shaking her head. "He was working with a previously established smuggling operation, a big one. The timing, it's too much to be a coincidence. A cycle after this guy shows up, a major player in imperium smuggling gets raided and killed? No, he's still out there, and he's gone hot again. Look at this, Isis."

Isis craned her head up at the screen. "Information that leads to the arrest of a black market imperium dealer, smuggler, or manufacturer will be rewarded by a monetary amount ranging from five thousand creds to twenty-five thousand creds."

"That's five times what it was before," Venus explained. "Five times, just...out of nowhere. Why would they do that, unless there was a particular entity they were desperate to take down now? And, read the second column, start at the top."

Isis did as she was told. "Information leading to the arrest of the person currently known as Tuxedo Mask will be met with a one million cred reward." She glanced down at her Princess. "That's five times what it was before?"

"Ten times," Venus corrected. "I think this guy showed up again, and the agency is dying to get him before he burns through more of his product. They have no idea how much he has access to, and they want it. This announcement was sent out everywhere on Earth, so maybe he's started dealing all over the place. Which must mean, he has enough product for my purposes."

"It...it lines up," Isis admitted. "So, what's the next play? How are we going to figure out who this guy is before the agency does? And how are we going to work with him?"

Venus held silent for a moment, and then looked over her left shoulder. "Aphrodite!"

A second pretty blonde, this one with curly hair that was just short of her shoulders, looked up from across the round room. _The Genetrix_ was playing host to two of Princess Venus's trusted lieutenants on this particular day.

"Yes, Your Highness?" Aphrodite quickly ran over, abandoning a cube-shaped device on the floor behind her.

"Our first step is finding a way to make ourselves valuable to Tuxedo Mask. A reason for him to want to cut us into his operation." Venus looked back and forth between her two lieutenants. "Isis, Aphrodite, consider this the top priority. Tell the other three Angels as well, we need everyone working on this."

She held a tiny little holo-projector up in her hand, a blue-tinged image of a bald, wrinkled, male head being projected up into the air, just above her open palm. "Solomon of Venus." She looked back up at her lieutenants. "You know of him?"

"Yes, he's...on the agency high council. Pushing sixty Earth-years old, I think?" Aphrodite stared down at the holographic head.

"Presumably, about ready to retire as it is." Venus rolled her eyes. "He's certainly pocketed more than enough money from his so-called charitable work in regulating imperium. And there are no shortage of pre-teen boys in the galaxy that just _demand_ his attention."

"Never proven," Isis remarked, drawing a caustic little glare from the Princess.

"And yet, most certainly the case," Venus countered.

"N-not disputing that point, Your Majesty," Isis quickly said, bowing her head down slightly. "Solomon is as dirty as they come, I think we all know that. What does he have to do with any of this?"

"We need everyone on this. Not just the Angels, but every one of our sleeper agents. Anyone and everyone who can assist, in any capacity. I need dirt on Solomon."

"Dirt?" Aphrodite repeated. "You mean to say...evidence of his illegal activities?"

"Yes, dirt," Venus assured her. "He's certainly got his fingers in every reprehensible action you can engage in across this fine galaxy, so despite his best efforts, I'm sure there's proof out there. Dig it all up. We're going to need a lot of dirt. A mountain of it. Enough to bury this shithead. I know it might take some time, and I'm willing to allow as much as we need, but we're obviously in a race against however fast Tuxedo Mask is burning through his imperium supply. Of course, this only works if we have so much dirt on Solomon that he's got no choice but to listen to what I have to say, so that's the priority."

"I will get everyone right on that," Isis said, standing up straight before the Princess of Venus.

"There is gold in the streets of every single town, city, and village on Venus," the Princess waxed poetically, tapping the tiny holo-projector with her thumb, making the image of Solomon change to one of a man wearing a top hat and mask. "Gold, just sitting right on the surface, waiting for someone to come scoop it up." She gazed down at the cartoonish hologram in her palm, staring down the mysterious masked face. "I suspect that our buddy here will be eager to get himself a bite of it, if only we can make it available to him."


	16. The Ever-Expanding Web

Chapter 16: The Ever-Expanding Web

Flanked by two tall, thin bodyguards, Queen Mars slowly glided up the wide wooden staircase, the floorboards creaking underneath the feet of the two guards, but somehow hardly releasing a squeak underneath the slippers of the Queen. She held her hands together in front of her, looking up at the thin red curtain at the top of the stairs.

Her ears, ever sensitive and accurate, could pick up a very soft voice coming from the room on the other side of the curtain. She couldn't hope to make out any of what was being said, so with a quiet urgency, she made her way up to the top of the stairs.

As she pushed the curtain aside and stepped through, she came out into a tiny balcony, overlooking a moderately-sized chamber. The balcony consisted of little more than three seats and handrails all around the edges, and the chamber had about six rows of pews. Every space on the long benches was taken, everyone's focus on a short, thin man with blond hair, wearing all black and standing on a dais at the back of the room. On the wall behind him was a sculpture of a circle with an arrow pointing out of the upper right of it.

"For days, upon days, upon days, I have prayed to the Kojiki. Practically all my waking hours, looking to the skies." The man on the dais held his right hand up in the air, head tilted back to look at the ceiling. He spoke in a soft whisper, voice carrying across the room thanks to the glowing pink crystal on his neck. "Desperately waiting, asking, begging, pleading, when? When would I be granted the means to save my flock? And finally, last night, I felt it."

Mars sat herself down in one of the chairs, eyes down on the man in black giving his sermon, grateful to see that it seemed her presence was currently unknown.

"I felt the touch of the elder Kojiki, last night. It was...warm. Made my whole body tingle. And then, they spoke to me. A gentle voice. A simple instruction." He slowly stepped down from the dais, towards his congregation. "They said...they felt pain. A sadness. A loss. And they told me...they spoke to me...they said, Markos, go, go relieve this pain." He gestured animatedly towards the pew to his right, up at the front row. "They told me, seek out this woman among your flock. You will know her when you see her. And save her."

Queen Mars couldn't help but roll her eyes, nevertheless watching Markos walk up to an elderly woman sitting in the first pew. He kneeled down in front of her.

"My dear, you are the woman that the Kojiki told me to seek out. I am sure." He put his hands out, grabbing her wrinkled appendages in his. "You have it, don't you? The Devil's Lupus. I can feel it. You have it?"

The elderly woman slowly nodded. "Y-yes."

"Ohhhhhh...my dear…" Markos spoke in such a hushed whisper it was almost scary that his voice was still allowed to carry across the room. Still kneeling in front of the old lady, he looked around at his congregation. "You've all heard of this? Devil's Lupus?" He closed his eyes. "Absolutely terrible disease. Skin rashes, face ulcers, sore joints, seizures. My dear." He looked down at her hands. "There are devils haunting you. There are devils in your body. And now, today, with the new gifts granted to me by the Kojiki, by their holy word, I will suck these devils out. I will banish them from you, forever. And I will do it with no knife, or laser, but with words, and the divine power of the elders."

Queen Mars closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly, but willed herself to keep watching.

Markos leaned in close to the elderly woman, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Leave this woman, devils." His almost-eerily quiet voice, echoing through the entire chamber, was bone-chilling. "Leave this woman, devils. Leave this woman, devils."

The entire room began to quietly chant this simple phrase after his voicing of it, creating a quiet, yet chaotic swarm of audio to fill the room in between Markos's quiet command.

"Leave this woman, devils. Leave this woman, devils." Slowly, his voice began to harden, being reinforced with additional volume and sternness with every syllable. "Leave this woman, and never return." He leaned back away from her, running his hands along her cheeks. "Leave, and should I ever see you again, you will be met with all the ferocity of my divine power, _right into your heart!_ "

He got back to his feet, holding his hands up in front of him, as if he was gripping onto an invisible ball. He staggered backwards, face sweating and grimacing. Every person sitting in the pews was hanging onto his every word an action.

" _And then you will be TOSSED, directly into the deepest circle of the underworld, left to ROT into NOTHING!_ " Markos was animatedly tossing his hands about, stomping his way down the aisle between the pews, yelling with an animalistic fury at the phantom object he held in his hands. " _FOR AS LOOOONG AS I STAND IN THIS WORLD, AS LOOOOONG AS I HAVE BREATH IN MY CHEST, YOU WILL FOREVER BE MET BY THE FURIES OF THE KOJIKI ELDERS SHOULD YOU EVER HAUNT MY FLOCK AGAIN!_ "

Everyone was standing up now, practically smushing into each other as they crammed themselves closer to the aisle, everyone murmuring and watching Markos gesticulate wildly towards the door to the room, acting with an animalistic rage.

" _ **NOOOOOOW LEAVE THIS PLACE, DEVILS! LEAAAAAAAAAVE THIS PLACE, DEVILS!**_ " He kicked the doors open violently, causing them to swing wide, and with a rattling yell, tossed his arms forward with such force that his entire body swung around. Putting his hands out to his sides, he fell to his knees. " _ **ANNNNDDDDDDD THEY LEEEEEEEEEFFFFTTTTT!**_ "

"Praise the Elders!"

With the quick little outburst from one of the members of the congregation, the room all began to speak up with words of praise.

"He's done it!"

"Praise the Holy Shrine of Markos!"

"Thank the Elders!"

Markos slowly stood back up, slowly walking back into the room, exhausted and covered in sweat, entire face twitching.

Queen Mars tilted her head slightly, casting a disdainful look down at Markos, scowling.

"

Kunzite stood in the middle of the main room of _The Qesem_ , hands behind his back and standing up straight, as Endymion slowly milled about, inspecting the array of eight equipment setups, each of them set out on an individual desk. Each desk had a plastic pipe above it, running up to the ceiling, as well as a collection of glass containers and tubing. Each table was bolted down to the floor.

"I decided this would work better than using the counterspace," Kunzite explained, Endymion running his hand over one of the ovens. "I removed the counters, obviously. Also, I organized the materials, the shelves over in the corner has been labeled and filled with all the substances we need for synthesization."

Endymion glanced over at the corner shelves, walking over to them. "What's the generator for?" He took a moment to glance over at a large square device on the floor a few paces away from the shelving.

"We'll need more power to run all these setups. Plus, we'll need to set up some cold air fans. Powerful ones. It'll get exceedingly hot in here when everything's running at once." Kunzite watched Endymion opened the door on one of the shelves, revealing neat rows of cans, boxes, and jars.

"Oh, beautiful!" Endymion enthused. "Look at all this Mestian rock!"

"Nephrite's network made it easier to acquire these substances in large amounts," Kunzite continued. "So long as we have his spies, I believe we will have no problem acquiring as much of them as we need."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Endymion suddenly gasped, looking down to his left, finding two large barrels standing right by the shelves. He quickly unlatched the top of the one on the right, peeling it up to find it full of brown liquid. He then undid the lid on the left barrel, finding it similarly loaded to the brim with the sickly-looking fluid. "Wait...this isn't…"

"Why do you think it took me four days?" Kunzite asked. "This equipment, those materials in the shelf, Nephrite's spies handled the acquisition of all that. I was procuring that second barrel."

"No way," Endymion said, quickly slapping both lids back onto the barrels and re-sealing them. "You told me boron fluid would be way too hard to get, how'd you get it?"

"I decided to take a shot at something, and it paid off," Kunzite replied. "After my first theft, security measures on all warehouses that held boron crystal fluid were increased significantly. Every warehouse, every planet. With one exception, an exception that didn't occur to me until recently."

Endymion blinked rapidly a few times. "Saturn?"

Kunzite nodded. "They've got bigger problems on Saturn right now, so...while it took some time to actually find a warehouse that had any...in fact, I'm rather convinced I got the only barrel on the whole planet...stealing it was rather simple."

"You know, sometimes I wish I paid you," Endymion mused. "Because I really should give you a raise."

"You told me to get more boron if the opportunity arose, so...I figured I'd at least take a look at things on Saturn. And it's a good thing I did, as it turns out. But, I wouldn't count on being able to get more anytime soon. Once Saturn reports the theft, I'm sure that the agency will get involved directly, which leaves us with...limited options."

"You've done great, Kunzite," Endymion assured him. "You, Nephrite, Zoisite...everyone. This operation doesn't go anywhere without you guys."

Thank you, Your Highness," Kunzite replied. "So, anyway, with this setup, we'll be able to produce about a hundred libras every batch. Batches take slightly longer than they used to, since we have to stagger things, and obviously there's more to do, more to clean. So, we go from...one-fourth of a day to...maybe add two minutas to it. Three at most."

"I want the ninety-nine percent purity," Endymion insisted. "No less. Every little fraction counts. If it takes us a little longer to clear contamination, then so be it."

"The way I see it, I can fly this ship out once every cycle, spin it up for two rounds, come back with two hundred libras, and even in Nephrite's most optimistic projections, we should be covered." Kunzite watched Endymion as he went back over to the two barrels, placing his palms down flat on top of either one. "I can pretty reasonably justify disappearing for a day every cycle."

"No no no," Endymion protested, drumming his fingers on top of the lids. "We need a marathon session. One long session in here, where all of these stations are running at all times. We just synthesize and synthesize until there's nothing left to synthesize. Easier to make one big excuse than a bunch of little ones."

"That's an option as well," Kunzite agreed. "So—"

"One hundred libras per batch," Endymion interrupted, forehead wrinkling in thought. "Estimate, eighteen minutas to complete one batch. Sixty minutas in one full day, so three and a third batches. If I'm recalling, you said that one barrel of boron fluid would provide enough catalyst for...twelve hundred libras, so twenty-four batches. Minus what we already used, minus potential spillage and overflow, call it twenty-three. So, twenty-three batches, three and a third batches a day, gives us...about six and nine-tenths days."

"Seven days of non-stop synthesizing," Kunzite said. "Maybe I can excuse it by saying that I'm spending some time on Jupiter with information brokers. Not exactly airtight, but enough to avoid suspicion."

"I want these furnaces running tomorrow," Endymion added. "We're going to need supplies, food and water. Obviously, imperium for the generator isn't a problem, so we just need enough oil to keep it running."

"Leaving only the question of, who will be my lab assistant?" Kunzite asked.

"Uh, me," Endymion said absentmindedly. "It has to be."

Kunzite's head recoiled back a bit. "N-no. Definitely not. It doesn't have to be you, and it will _not_ be you."

"We don't have time to adequately train anyone else, Nephrite's going to run out of product in a matter of days. You and me are the only two people with any experience doing this, and we've already proven we can produce ninety-nine percent pure imperium. It's too big a risk to have anyone else, we're going to churn out nearly twenty-four hundred libras. Therefore, it has to be me."

Kunzite stared at his charge, looking absolutely bewildered. "Your Majesty, I don't think you're thinking this all the way through." He pointed down at the floor next to him. "To do what you're proposing, you'd have to stay on this ship for seven straight days, while it aimlessly floats through space. We're not flying to a grade ten hotel every night to sleep."

"Obviously," Endymion said, going over to one of the workstations and running his hands over the tube furnace on it. "I'm aware."

"That means sleeping on the floor. This floor." Kunzite looked over to the right wall for a second, then back to the Prince, tapping his boot on the steel ground beneath him. "Endymion, if I were to place a pebble underneath your mattress one evening, you'd wake up in the morning feeling like your hips had been dislocated."

Endymion's face wrinkled, looking vaguely offended. "No, no, I wouldn't. Don't be silly."

"Well, regardless, you've never known anything but sheets imported from Neptune, and every mattress you've ever slept on has been carefully calibrated for you specifically. You spend one night sleeping on the floor in this ship, you're going to be in agony for the next year."

"Hey, can you back it up a bit?" Endymion said, voice just a little whiny. "Do I look like one of those teenage singer girls who gets carried everywhere they go by servants?"

Kunzite took a half-step towards Endymion. "Either way, this process is going to involve tending to the workstations constantly. We're talking about seven straight days of carving out a sleeping schedule around whatever downtime the process allows us. Uh, two minutas sleeping, then getting up to dampen the catalyst bed. A minuta-and-a-half sleeping, then getting up to inject the tubes with drayan gas. Repeat ad nauseam." He pointed both of his index fingers at Endymion. "You are not cut out for that sort of thing, not even close. When was the last time you didn't get at least fifteen uninterrupted minutas of sleep? When you were two?"

"Okay, I get it!" Endymion snapped. "Yes, I...maybe I've had a bit of a gilded upbringing. I could do without you mocking me about it."

"I'm not mocking you, Your Highness," Kunzite insisted. "All I'm saying is that you would be beyond miserable here. Nothing but survival rations and plain water for seven days? Maybe the occasional piece of fruit?"

"I will find a way," Endymion said assuredly. "We don't have a choice, we're on a tight schedule."

"I can think of three perfectly fine choices off the top of my head," Kunzite countered sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. "I need a lab assistant, not a head chemist, any of your other three generals will be fine."

"Okay. For starters, I wouldn't trust Jadeite to make one of those...little volcano things with baking soda and vinegar," Endymion argued. "So, no."

"Jadeite is plenty smart, and more than qualified for assisting me with this. And if you don't like that, you have—"

"None of them have experience with this process," Endymion continued to press. "Nobody does but us. It has to be us."

"Your Majesty. It could be a nineteen-year-old academy student who's completed their level three chemistry courses at a mediocre academy," Kunzite implored. "I could fly to Jupiter and pick a random person out of their population and odds are they would be fine."

"That's not true, and you know it." Endymion went back over to the shelf, opening one of the doors up. He began counting the rows of silver circular cans on one of the middle shelves. "This is a complex, precise, demanding process, and the slightest deviation or misunderstanding can result in a loss of purity or even a complete loss of a batch."

"Yes, and I will be there to assure that that doesn't happen." Kunzite lazily pointed a finger at one of the ovens on the workstation to his immediate left. "And even if you don't accept that, Zoisite is one of the most intelligent people in the galaxy, so ask him to accompany me and there will be nothing to worry about."

"I know Zoisite is smart, but he has participated in zero successful synthesizations of ninety-nine percent pure imperium." He put his hand up to his chest. "I have two. We're going to be running eight setups at once, I don't want someone with no experience trying to learn the process on the fly while juggling eight different workstations. I'm your lab assistant, and we start tomorrow, that's final."

Kunzite ran his right hand down his face, wincing strongly. "Well, we haven't even addressed the biggest problem, so let's get to that. How are you going to justify a seven day long disappearance to anyone? Most namely, your wife and your father?"

Endymion hesitated a bit, gaze flinching down towards the floor. "I'm...I'm working on that."

"How far along are you in the process of...working on it, exactly?" Kunzite asked. "Because I have to tell you, I'm not seeing a way to spin it. You've already gotten yourself in dangerous waters with Serenity once recently, and no excuse in the world is going to make her okay with you being gone for seven days when she's a couple cycles away from giving birth!"

"Yes," Endymion begrudgingly admitted, nodding. "She won't like it. She'll pout about it, whine about it, probably be mad at me for awhile. Might do something immature to express her anger. And then, give it half a cycle, maybe three-quarters, she'll be completely fine, she'll barely remember this ever happened, and life will go on. I don't need her to like it, I need her to believe it. And then I will deal with the fallout later."

"Believe what?" Kunzite asked, tilting his head curiously. "What are you going to tell her?"

Endymion clenched his jaw a bit. "Okay. Here's what I'm thinking."

"

Queen Mars gently rapped her knuckles on the rectangular brown door in front of her, then put her hand back at her side and waited.

Beats later, the door gently opened outward, revealing a small room with a desk and assorted plants and pictures along the four walls. Standing right before the young Queen was none other than Markos, the blond-haired priest. He practically jumped in shock at the sight of royalty in front of him, but quickly gathered himself enough to bow.

"Wow! Wow, I...I did not expect this!" Markos exclaimed, backing away quickly as Queen Mars slowly entered the room, looking around at the fancy, finely organized decorations all around. "Queen Mars! In my shrine, in my office! Wow! Truly the Kojiki smile on me today!"

Mars said nothing, slowly moving towards a chair positioned in front of the desk, looking down at it.

"I...oh, this must mean nothing but good things, I...I have drawn the attention of the Queen of Mars! Praise to the Elders!" He clapped his hands together violently. "Have you heard of my works? Seen my miracles? You must have, why else would you be here today?"

Queen Mars slowly squatted down into a sitting position on the chair, staring straight ahead at the space just behind the desk, looking for all the world as if she couldn't hear was Markos was saying to her.

"Oh, I...you know, this Shrine, I'm fast outgrowing it. This is truly fortuitous timing, that you would approach me now!" Markos quickly ran behind the desk, crashing into the large plush seat behind it, eyes on the Queen. "I...I don't know if you've seen any of my services, if you haven't we can certainly arrange for you to see one, uh...tomorrow morning?"

Mars placed her arms on the armrests of the chair, putting her back up straight.

"I...Your Highness, you really should have given some notice before you came here, I...I could have prepared for your arrival, you deserve so much more than just...just knocking on my office door." Markos gave an awkward grin.

"Your shrine is being shut down. Effective immediately," Mars said simply.

Markos's smile glitched off his face, twitching downward sharply.

"I...I'm sorry?" he prompted.

"You heard me," she said.

"Um...who?" He glanced about the office slowly. "Who is shutting me down, exactly?"

"Me," Mars answered, keeping her face flat and emotionless.

"Um...you know, Your Majesty, I'm really not looking to...uh, go work for another shrine. And, I mean, if you want me to come to the palace, I'm honored, really, and...maybe we could work something out, but what I really need is to expand what I have. I've...I've been working on building this practice for six years now, it's...it's really grown, every service I give, I have to turn people away because we don't have enough room, the pews are crammed, you...if you saw my sermons, you'd know what I'm talking about!" Markos bit his lower lip. "If you want me to...come work in the palace, then...well, I guess I can't turn you down, but...I've worked hard on this."

"You're not going to go work for another shrine. And you're not coming to work in the palace," Mars said sternly. "You're done."

"Um...Your Highness, I'm still a young man. I'm just getting started, I'm looking to...to grow exponentially. To guide as many people as possible into the light. To use what the Kojiki have given me to grant salvation. I...I'm just not sure I understand what you're getting at, here."

"I must admit, I have some degree of...admiration for your showmanship and theatricality. I suspect you'd be quite good at a number of other professions. Circus ringmaster, maybe. But I just can't have someone like you representing my faith." Mars slowly folded her hands together in her lap. "It makes the rest of us look bad."

Markos swallowed down hard, lazily glancing down at the floor. "I...I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you have no gift. No connection to the Kojiki. And I'm sure that that fact upsets you, and I'm sorry for that, but pretending to have it is not acceptable. Not while I run this planet, not while I represent our belief system to the rest of the galaxy." Mars crossed her right leg over her left knee.

"Q-Queen Mars, if you came to one of my sermons, I think you would—"

"I've been to your sermons. A few of them. You're a stage magician. Well, there's another job that might be good for you, but...well, yes. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the Kojiki have never spoken to you once in your entire life. Physical, mental, spiritual, none of it."

Markos ran his right hand over his mouth, grimacing for a moment before managing to flatten out his expression. "Your Highness, with all due respect, you have just recently taken the throne, and your father seemed perfectly comfortable with letting me work for years. In fact, if you look up on the wall behind me, I have his signature on a certification, so maybe before you make any rash accusations—"

"You and my father both have something in common, Markos. Specifically, you don't give a damn about my faith. You two have just gone about expressing that in very different ways." Mars didn't even flick her eyes up to the certificate on the wall that Markos was trying to point out.

"Okay, I...I have to say, I'm rather offended. Maybe our styles are different, but I've been working tirelessly on building this shrine up for six years, it is my life, there is nothing else in my life but this. For you to come in here and...and accuse me of having no gift after all I've done for my flock, it's...it's insulting, honestly." Markos scowled a bit. "I'm sorry, I respect you and your considerable powers, I know who you are and what you represent, but I have to defend myself here. Ask anyone in my flock what they think of my abilities." He leaned back in the chair, glaring over at the Queen.

"And I feel truly awful for every last person in your flock for thinking that," she said shortly. "Now, your act may have flown under my father, but it won't fly under me. I want this shrine cleared out by tomorrow."

"Okay, okay!" Markos exclaimed, putting his hand out towards Queen Mars. "If you were right...if what you said was true, then you'd already know!" He put his right index fingers to his temple. "If I had no gift, you'd be in here right now, swimming around in my mind, learning everything about me. I'd be an open book before you, I'd...I'd have no choice but to comply! But the fact that you have to come in here and talk to me, tell me what to do, tell me how you feel, that in and of itself proves you're wrong!"

Mars gave a tiny, almost playful smile. "I can't read you because you've had suppressors injected. Another curious move for one with the gift, by the way. And you've done an excellent job of burying everything about your past before this shrine opened, so, credit to you there." She stood to her feet. "But, if you insist...I have more than one way of reading a person."

Slowly, she moved around the desk, sweeping around the simple wooden surface. Cautiously, Markos stood up, warily regarding the Queen as she approached.

"Uh, what...what are you…" Markos unconsciously took a couple steps away from her, towards the wall right behind him. She just kept walking towards him, forcing his back against the wall. "Hey!"

Mars reached out, snatching his left wrist in her right hand and gripping it tightly. She looked straight into Markos's eyes as he flinched back.

"You come from a family of seers? Both your parents had the gift?" Mars began, not dropping her hard glare right at Markos's face as she spoke. "Yes, that's it. Who pressured you into it? Mother? Father?" She paused. "Father."

"W-what the hell are you doing?!" Markos snapped, trying to rip away from the Queen, averting his head to the right.

Mars just twisted his arm a bit. "Stop that. Okay, father, then. He wasn't happy when you never showed any potential, was he?"

Finally relenting, Markos turned back to look at Queen Mars, looking rather disoriented and afraid. "You don't—"

"Beat you? Yes, of course he did. Eventually, you got the idea to fake it, just to get him to stop hitting you, when you were...twelve?" She looked right into Markos's eyes. "Thirteen? Fourteen? There we are, fourteen. What'd you do, Markos? Get your friends to pretend to be injured and then you'd heal them? That's an easy one."

Markos now looked horrified, face sweating like it had during his earlier sermon, as he wilted under Mars's accusing glare. "I—"

"No, no, you needed a splash. Too small for you to just do it to some random person, you needed something of significance to get your father off your back. Let me just say, I sympathize with that, I hate my father and am beyond thrilled that he's out of my life now. Regardless, what nonsense did you pull off to earn the respect of enough people to start your own shrine?"

Markos's face twitched at several spots now, clear and obvious terror in his expression.

"Curse a plant and cause it to wither? Walk on water? Raise the dead?" She waited for a reaction deep in Markos's eyes. "Raise the dead! Wow, you went all out! You got someone to pretend to be dead, only for you to revive them. Who was it? Hm?"

She gave his arm a shake, Markos now starting to leak tears out of his eyes as he slowly slipped down against the wall.

"Brother? Sister? Best friend? Cousin? There we are, cousin," Mars said with finality. "Must have really blown everyone's hair back, pulling that off. And on that miracle, you built your practice. And everything was going just perfectly for you, until my father gave me the throne. How hard was it to bury your past like that? Must have taken some effort, but, of course, you had no choice. After all, any Kojiki-sensitive individual worth a damn knows that you can't bring people back from the dead, you'd be exposed as a fraud instantly if word about that spread around, and unlike my father, I'd actually care enough to stop you!"

Markos gave a helpless little squeal, slowly drooping to the floor, openly sobbing now under Mars's string of accusations.

"I think I've seen everything I need to see," Mars said, turning away from the broken Markos, who sat on the floor in defeat. "Rest assured, you are far from the only charlatan who has been allowed to run amok on my planet under my father, and you are far from the only one I will have to shut down. You're simply the first I've found." She looked around the room, listening to Markos weeping behind her. "You shut down by tomorrow evening, and I won't press charges."

With that, she slowly walked back towards the lone door to the room, the only sound in the room his sobbing.

"

"Prince Endymion, please, I am _sure_ there is a better way than this," Kunzite begged, putting his right hand out towards the chest of his charge. "This is such a bad idea, there simply has to exist a better way."

"Well, we don't have time to find that better way," Endymion protested, glancing down the hallway, then back in the opposite direction. "We're running out of product, we need to get _The Qesem_ up in space and running."

"Involving your father in this deception is inviting disaster, Your Highness. If we need to take some time to come up with a better justification for you disappearing for seven days, then we need to take that time. The worst that will happen is that Nephrite's crew will be inactive for a few days, that's...it's not a big deal."

"It'll work!" Endymion hissed. The two men were standing very close to each other, speaking in hushed voices. "It...it allows me to give different stories to Kasios and Serenity, and gives my story more credibility with Serenity. I know my father, he'll...he'll go for it."

Kunzite scratched his fingernails along the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "This...Your Highness, what makes you so sure that your father won't react poorly to this? You have no guarantee of what he'll think, he could easily get very upset! And then what?!" With an exasperated sigh, Kunzite gave his head a quick shake. "Okay, okay, I...it's your call, just let the record show that I think this is a terrible idea."

"Alright, I'm going, just...just sit tight. I can spin this, I can get him on board, just...trust me." He turned to the right, straightening the front of his shirt, marching off down the wide, ornate hallway. Kunzite simply turned around and leaned up against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

Quite sure that he could feel the heat of Kunzite's glare on his back, Endymion steeled himself as he stalked down the large hallway. After perhaps twenty paces, he broke off to the left towards a green and blue door. He knocked softly on the wooden rectangle, waiting perhaps half a beat before getting a response.

"Who is it?"

"Uh, dad, it's...it's me," Endymion said, taking a moment to soften his face up a bit.

"Come on in," Kasios instructed, prompting the Prince to pop the door open.

The King's bedroom was very similar to Endymion's, with the same sorts of fancy designs and decorations everywhere, matching the style that the rest of the palace mostly maintained. It was noticeably bigger, and Endymion knew that some of the valued objects in here were an order of magnitude more significant than those he had. A bedroom fit for a King, truly. The King in question was sitting at his desk in the far corner of the room, back turned to his son.

"Hey, hey dad," Endymion said, adopting a slightly meek manner, slowly ambling forward across the carpet.

"Hey there." Kasios spun his chair around. "Say, uh, you want to have dinner together tonight? I'm dying for some pork, ribs maybe, that sound okay to you?"

"Yeah, yeah sure, I'm all for that," Endymion said softly, absentmindedly glancing about. "Sure. How's it...how's it going?"

"Oh...well, not bad I suppose," Kasios replied, turning back to his desk. "Agency business, it's...well, I don't want to bore you with it, but some stuff is happening lately. Stressful. I need good stuff to start happening or the council is going to start putting some pressure on me, and I don't need that, so...you know. What's up?"

"S-sorry to hear that," Endymion said, coming up right behind his father. "Um, I'm...dad, I, I need your help with something."

"Something up with that bookstore deal you were working on?" Kasios asked. "You need more money?"

"N-no, Zoisite already finalized that, we're good there. The bookstores are ours, that went great." Endymion fumbled his fingers around in front of him. "It's...I need your help with something else. I…" his face faltered a bit. "I...I don't really know how to say this, but...I'm scared."

After a short pause, Kasios spun back around in his chair, Endymion slowly backing off towards a different chair up against the wall right next to the desk. "Scared?" Kasios repeated. "Of what? Financing a bookstore?"

"No, no, nothing...nothing with that." Endymion sat down in the chair heavily. "I...it's Serenity, I...I think...I'm not sure what's been going on with me lately, but, the closer we get to the birth, the more, just...incomplete I find myself feeling."

Kasios could only wrinkle his face at this proclamation, wheeling his leather chair away from the desk a bit. "Well, son, I have to say I...I don't know what to say to that. I don't really know what it means, actually."

"You know I love her, right?" Endymion said, putting a slightly shaking hand down on the armrest. "God, I love her, more than anything, but...I mean, I don't know…I'm starting to regret the way I've handled things with her."

"Um...go on," Kasios prompted, giving an uncomfortable little glance to his left.

"We started, uh...you know, seriously seeing each other when I was still sixteen. Just before I turned seventeen, I remember. And then, just before I turn twenty, we get married. Now, before I turn twenty-one, she's going to give birth to my child, I...maybe I went into things too fast." Endymion slouched over a bit, resting his right hand against his forehead, using his right elbow to prop himself up. "I went steady with her when I was sixteen, never once broke it off, now...now we're just together forever, and...I don't know, dad."

Kasios scratched at his left temple. "I mean...I didn't commit to your mother until I was twenty, so, I kind of get it, but...I gotta say, son, I thought that's what you wanted! Y'know, the way that...you are, the way you think about things, I thought you were a one-woman kind of guy!"

"I...I thought I was too, but...God, maybe I should have had more fun while I was young!" He wiped his left hand across his forehead, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. "I...I never thought I'd find myself wanting more than Serenity, I thought she...she completed me, but...lately, I'm just finding myself...oh, Gods."

Kasios got to his feet, cautiously approaching his son. "Hey, son, I...nobody else is going to hear about any of this, I promise. Not going to speak about this to anyone, whatever you tell me, you've got my word. Just give it to me."

Endymion nodded, sniffling a little bit. "Just...she's so clingy and needy and...lately, I've just been irritated by all the weird things she says, the odd behavior, how...clingy she is, it's just starting to get on my nerves! I used to find it endearing, I loved it!"

"Yeah, I thought you loved all that about her!" Kasios agreed. "I...son, maybe you're just having some little mood swings right now. Give it a few days, sometimes the mind is a weird thing."

"It's been brewing for awhile," Endymion protested, wiping his hands up near his eyes. "I've been trying, so hard, to bury it, but...I just think back to those...three cycles when I was sixteen. Jadeite starting taking me to Venus to...you know, sample the local flavor."

Kasios's lip curled down a bit. "Thought you weren't really into that."

"I…" Endymion shook his head. "I didn't think I was either, but now...you know, a few years later, I'm wondering if maybe I judged things too fast. Maybe it was a mistake to commit when I was so young! Maybe I should have just had a little more fun when I was younger. Now I just...I'm starting to feel suffocated!" Endymion slumped over a bit more in the chair. "I want so badly to bury this, to...to be rid of this feeling of...I don't know how else to describe it, other than loss!" He shook his head, starting to tear up a bit.

"Uh…" Kasios looked back and forth, almost resembling the look of shellshock over Endymion's words. "I...uh...wow. Okay."

"I feel...so awful about this, trust me, I...Serenity doesn't deserve any of this, doesn't deserve me getting annoyed by her, I know I'm not...treating her in the way that she deserves right now, and...I...I don't know if she's even really noticed yet, you know she tends to be positive about things. But, if I can't...stop feeling like this, it's going to be a real problem. And I love her more than anything, and I don't want to do that to her." He hung his head down, wiping at his eyes again.

"Hey, hey, I...uh...son, I...you'll be okay," he said, going up next to him and awkwardly patting the top of his head. "You'll...you'll be okay."

"I need to do something about this," Endymion said, voice getting choked up a bit. "I have an itch that I need to scratch, and...I need to scratch it, or else it'll get worse. If I keep trying to bury this, it'll just fester, I'm convinced of that now." He looked up, eyes red and cheeks stained with tears. "I need your help to...to rid me of this."

Kasios's mouth dropped open a bit in shock, recoiling a bit. "Son, I...what do you want me to do? I mean, I don't know what you're trying to suggest, but...you're married now. And you're about to be a father, there's...I don't know what you think I can do here."

Endymion raised a shivering hand up towards his father slowly. "I...I need to burn it out. Burying it, it won't work, I can't...it's just getting bigger. But I think...if I could just burn it out, I could get rid of it. Just, give me...a handful of days away to...indulge myself, just get it all out of my system, and then I can be done with it."

"What?!" Kasios's eyes bulged. "Whoa whoa whoa, what...are you crazy?! Endymion, you...you're married! Indulge yourself, you...son! Get yourself together! This isn't like you at all!"

"I know!" Endymion cried, looking up at his father pleadingly, tears in his eyes. "I know, this...I don't know where this came from, and I hate it, but...I can't just run from it anymore! I...I need to go away for awhile, go burn off this feeling, and...it'll just be the one time, I p-promise! I'll get it all out, just...I'll need a few days, and it'll be done!"

"Do you have any idea, the scandal that would cause?!" Kasios put his hands on his hips. "The Prince of Earth suddenly heading off to Venus to plant his seed in a bunch of random women, just cycles after his marriage? Scandal might not even do it justice!"

"K-Kunzite would be with me," Endymion said, wiping at his cheeks again. "I've already gone over it with him, he's got all kinds of disguises for me, things I can wear so I'm not recognizable, he's...I'll be discrete, I promise. I'll be safe too, of course. That won't be a problem, but...I need your help."

"Um…" Kasios pursed his lips together tightly. "Okay, listen. Maybe you need...like, a therapist, or something?"

"I've had Zoisite acting as my therapist lately, he...I've tried to work through it with him, but it's not working. And if he can't get it, I don't trust any therapist to have any better luck. No, I...I need your help selling a story to Serenity, to explain why I'm going to be gone for awhile. I need you to…" he started tearing up again, sniffling loudly. "Help me lie to my wife."

Kasios sighed dramatically, spinning away from his son and walking a couple steps away. "Oh, son, what is _wrong_ with you?"

"She won't believe me, I...I know what I'm going to tell her, but it'll only fly if you back me up on it. Just...just help give me a little credibility, and I'll do the rest." Endymion nodded, body shaking. "That's all I need."

"Uhm...Endymion, listen." Kasios spun back around to look at his son. "As far as I'm concerned, you're an adult, and you're smart enough to make your own decisions. If you want to commit adultery, that's your call, I'm not interested in telling you what you can and can't do, it's your life, and...whatever. But, you want me to _help_ you, I...son, I don't know how I feel about that."

"I-I know," Endymion said weakly. "I know it's an awful thing, but...there's nothing I can say to her, by myself, that'll make her accept me disappearing for six or seven days. But, if you can back me up, she'll have to."

Kasios groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Wow. Son, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time right now, really, but...there's got to be a better way to deal with this."

"I...I want to believe that there is, but...I just k-know it, I'm days away from doing something I really regret with her, and then...I mean, that won't make me f-feel better, I'll just be stuck like that, maybe forever! I...doing this _has_ to be better, not j-just for me, but for her, than just...letting it brew inside me for the rest of my life, r-right? I go off for a few days, just get it all out of my system, come back, and buckle in for the next sixty years!"

Kasios glanced up at the corner of the room, uneasily shifting his weight. "Son...I love you, but...I don't know if I can do this, I—"

Endymion buried his face in his hands, now openly sobbing. "I...I detest myself so much for f-f-feeling like this, I'm such a pathetically weak man!"

Kasios blinked rapidly down at his son, mouth still gaping open slightly. "U-uh…"

"Gods, I'm pathetic, I can't believe the feelings I've had for the last cycle! I'm so ashamed, I...I want to be rid of them! F-forever, I w-want them gone! I need them gone, I...I don't…if I don't do this, I don't even know what's going to happen, but...oh, I want this marriage to work, so badly."

Kasios stared at Endymion as if he was growing a pair of heads out of both of his shoulders.

"Oh...oh, dad, please...please, I need help!"

"Uh...uh...I…" Kasios stuttered, looking almost like he was scared. "Son...I...I…"

"

Endymion walked down the hallway, wiping at his cheeks and eyes feverishly with both hands, moving purposefully away from his father's bedroom, Kunzite still leaning against the wall right where he had left him. As he rapidly stalked past his guardian, he fell into stride alongside him.

"He went for it," Endymion said in a low voice, casting a quick look behind him over his shoulder.

"Oh, wonderful," Kunzite said dryly. "Your father thinks you're about to commit mass adultery cycles after getting married, that's...that's phenomenal news. I'll plan the party."

"Well, it worked," Endymion insisted. "He's going to help with Serenity as well. When the opportunity arises, I'll...put his mind at ease about this after we get back. I'll...tell him that I chickened out and we just went fishing or camping or something."

Kunzite's forehead creased. "Why is that...somehow _less_ believable?"

Endymion gave Kunzite a caustic little glare. "Alright, now we just...tell Serenity."

"Okay, let's...go over our story one more time," Kunzite instructed, the two of them still briskly walking.

"

"Survival training?"

Endymion's bedroom was atypically-crowded, with four individuals standing in the middle of the large carpeted space. Serenity was standing, hands on her hips, looking at the three tall men standing in front of her. She had a look of confusion and bewilderment on her face.

"Y-yeah...it's a thing that male members of the Earth royal house have to...go through," Endymion said quietly, fidgeting around with the front of his shirt. "You go out in the wilderness for a few nights, go out into deep space with no power, you...learn how to hunt and forage for food. Those kinds of skills." He nodded.

Serenity just gaped over at her husband for several beats. "This...this is a joke, right?"

Kasios stepped forward towards Serenity's left side, hands on his hips. "Noooo...no, it's a thing."

"Um…" Serenity swallowed, looking over at Kunzite intently, as if trying to find some sort of crack in his face that would expose this as a rather exhausting comedic routine. "I...in what circumstance would Endymion...or, any royal, for that matter, ever need to know about things like that?"

"Well, hopefully never," Endymion said casually. "I mean, obviously. But, crazy things happen, and...you know, the life of an Earth royal and direct heir to the throne is obviously very valuable, so, if something does happen, I need to know how to...uh, survive."

Serenity blinked a couple times, looking like she was still waiting for an announcement of this all being an elaborate gag. When no such announcement came, she just stared up at Kasios.

"It's a tradition. I did it, my father, grandfather...twenty generations of our family, at least. Probably since our family took the Earth Kingdom." He jerked his head over towards Endymion. "Strictly speaking, he should have done it before he turned twenty, but...well, we kind of all forgot about it. And frankly, yeah, it's...there's some stuff that he really should know."

"L-look, Kunzite's going to be with me the whole time," Endymion assured his wife, pointing his right hand over towards his elder general. "Obviously, with him, I'll be completely safe, there's no danger involved. I'll be back in one piece in...probably six or seven days."

"Six or seven days?" Serenity repeated. "You're going to be gone for...seven days?"

"Yeah, uh...no communication either, really very little technology at all, it's...oh, boy, sounds like hell," Endymion said, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm dreading it, but...what am I, gonna break hundreds of years of family tradition?"

"I've...I've never heard of anything like that," Serenity protested. "If this is a joke, then it's really gone on too long, I...I can't honestly be expected to believe—"

"Look, we all kind of forgot about it," Kasios tried to explain. "It's just not something that comes up that often, literally once a generation. I, I really want him to do it, I...I think it might be good for him, and...he needs to do it now. Can't do it after...or, at least, it wouldn't be a good idea to do it after…" he gesticulated over towards Serenity's belly.

"I leave tomorrow," Endymion said. "This is, this is the last one, really, I promise."

Serenity gave a glassy glare up at her husband. Endymion quickly closed the small gap between the two of them. "Look, Serenity, it's just going to be seven days, maybe not even, and then—"

"You...you said that this sort of thing was done. In the temple, you told me—"

"And I meant that when I said it, I promise, but...this, this wasn't even in my mind. And hey, one time thing, obviously." Endymion shrugged. "So, just...I mean, we've got your squad of midwives all hired and moving in, so you'll have plenty of help from them, and...there's no chance of you giving birth before I get back if I leave now, so...may as well just do it."

Serenity rattled in a large breath, still looking back and forth between the three men, waiting for some other shoe to drop.

"Look, I wanna...take the blame for this one," Kasios spoke up. "This is me, I should have...had him do it awhile ago, before the wedding, maybe before the announcement even, I screwed up. Sorry. But, I mean...better now than later."

"Your husband will be perfectly safe with me, Your Highness," Kunzite chimed in.

Serenity, after several long moments, gave a tiny nod. "Okay."

"Again, I'm sorry, I know it's...hey, I hate it too, I want nothing to do with survival training for seven straight days, but it's just something I guess I need to do." Endymion scratched at his hip for a moment. "And, when it's over, it's over."

"Okay," Serenity said for the second time.

With an uneasy smile, Endymion slowly backed away. "Okay, I...I need to speak to Kunzite, in private, for a bit, about how I should prepare. Again, s-sorry, I just...needs to be done." Frantically, he walked backwards toward the bedroom door behind him, Kunzite and Kasios both slowly following him.

Taking what seemed like an eternity, Endymion found his way to the door, reaching behind him and fumbling around for the knob for a bit before giving it a quick twist. Disappearing from sight, leaving his wife standing there in a whirlwind of emotions that seemed to all be canceling out, leaving her expressing none of them.

With the three men out of the room, Kunzite closed the door, Endymion having quickly stormed down the hall, getting far away from his bedroom door. His general and his father rapidly went up to him, the three of them crowding together closely.

"Alright, we're good," Endymion said under his breath.

" _That_ was good?" Kunzite questioned, looking over his shoulder. "Odd word choice."

"I knew she would be upset, but she believed it. She'll get over it, it's how she is," Endymion explained.

"Well, you're certainly putting that theory of yours to the test," Kunzite said, slightly caustically. "Also, I'm not convinced that she believed us, to be entirely honest."

"What choice does she have?" Endymion reasoned.

Kasios sighed, then reached his right arm up, grasping the back of Endymion's neck firmly with his fingers. "Let it be known that I had absolutely no fun doing that."

"I know, I...thank you," Endymion whispered.

"Also, let it be known that I only did it because you're my son, and I love you more than anything else in this universe, and...when it comes right down to it, I would do anything for you." He gave Endymion a little shake. "However, this had better be it. This had better not become a repeat occurrence. Next time you start feeling like this, I'll hire you an army of therapists, but not this again. One-time thing. This is your one."

Endymion nodded. "You've got my word, I'm...I'm done with it after this."

"And so help me Terra, if you get recognized out there, or knock up a girl, I will castrate you. Personally."

Endymion jabbed his index finger into Kunzite's chest. "He's going to be with me, he'll make sure I stay in line."

Kasios puffed his cheeks out, shaking his head slowly. "You know, I...you've always been a pretty good kid. All things considered." He gave a tiny smile, letting his hand drop from the back of his son's neck. "I guess you're making up for lost time now." He patted Endymion on the back. "You know, adultery does kind of...run in the family."

Endymion stood up straight at this, raising an eyebrow at his father.

"N-not me, obviously. Your grandfather though, I mean...wow, I've told you stories, right? Believe me, I only told you a tiny fraction of them. Great-grandfather too. Guess it skipped a generation." He spun away from the tiny gathering, walking off, back to his room.

"I'll give you this much," Kunzite said under his breath. "Neither of them have punched you in the face yet, so you're doing better than I expected."

"

"Alright, off to the worst experience of my life!" Endymion slung a small leather sack up, putting the strap over his shoulder. Wearing a gregarious smile, he waited for Serenity to get up off the bed. "Oh, it's going to be awful, I...I wish I could just...blow it off and stay here. But, uh, my dad would be disappointed, and, can't have that."

Serenity remained seated on the left corner of the bed, leaning back and supporting her upper body with her arms. "Okay."

Endymion's smile flickered away for a brief flash, but came back quickly. "And, hey, on the other hand, when I get back, I'll be able to...teach you how to start a fire from scratch. How to skin a rabbit after catching it and cook the meat. H-hey, maybe even the thing where...you purify your own urine so you can drink it."

She gave a curt nod. "Sure."

"Hey, hey, this is it, I promise, I made everyone promise. Kunzite, Kasios, everyone, I'm spending...pretty much all my time, gonna be here. In the palace."

"Okay." She still didn't get up off the bed.

"Uh…" Endymion sighed, glancing around his room airily. "Well. Goodbye."

She nodded. "Survival training." She gave her head a quick little tilt to the left before straightening it back out. "Hm."

Endymion quickly turned around, running his fingers along the strap on his shoulder, marching off to the door to the balcony. Within beats, he was out of the room, closing the glass-and-wood barrier behind him, walking off to the glowing blue platform that performed the function of an elevator. She craned her head up just enough to watch him step on the round platform, then quickly descend downwards, out of sight.

After several dragging beats of silence and inactivity, Serenity got to her feet. She sniffled a bit, a gloomy look on her face as she judged the large room that she now had to herself. Her right eye twitched a bit, and she reached up to rub at it.

Slowly, she swept over towards a small wooden counter space against the left wall, a shelf right behind it lined with various sized crystal glasses. Constantly twisting her head about, eyes and ears alert for any sign of a visitor, she crept behind the counter and opened a sealed drawer at her knees.

Her right hand submerged into the chilled compartment and came up holding a square, tall bottle that had just a little bit of brown liquid at the bottom of it. Reaching behind her to grab one of the round, short, fat glasses, she unscrewed the lid from the bottle and raised it up in front of her face to judge the small amount remaining inside.

She glanced back down to the glass, then the bottle. She unconsciously rubbed her stomach.

Finally, with a jerky twist of her wrist, she began to pour a small amount of the pungent brown liquid into the glass. She lifted it up to her face, and before her better judgement could take over, she put the mouth of the glass to her lips, downing the contents. With a little shudder and lurch forward, she slapped the empty glass back down on the counter.


	17. A Random Universe for Random People

Chapter 17: A Random Universe for Random People

With a twist of Kunzite's wrist, a thin stream of a blue liquid began to fall into a large glass beaker.

"And there goes number eight," Kunzite said, looking up at the red digitally-displayed timer on the wall in front of him. "So, we've got maybe half a minuta before we have to start soaking the catalyst bed with salium."

"Nothing we can do until then?" Endymion asked, picking up one of the black respiratory masks off the sixth table and checking the seals for any defects.

"Not right now," Kunzite answered. "We don't want the boron fluid to sit too long after we mix it with the mestian, so mixing it now is no good. No point in trying to sleep, so...let's just wait."

Setting the mask back down, Endymion milled over towards the top left workstation, eyes darting from table to table.

"Once we get the furnaces burning, we'll have time to sleep. And you, especially, should take full advantage of every opportunity to sleep. You'll have a hard enough time functioning well on this sleep schedule, but you'll have to at least get a decent amount of it if you want to have a chance at doing this well."

"Sure thing." Endymion leaned over, watching the tiny line of blue fluid gradually fill the container on the first desk.

Kunzite tapped his right hand fingertips on another one of the tables, cautiously looking over at his charge. "Alright. Your Highness...what's done is done, and you can't change your past decisions, so...at the very least, can you admit that there simply _had_ to be a better way to handle things than...this?"

"From my perspective, things went fine," Endymion muttered, gritting his teeth a little bit nevertheless.

"I shudder to think of what you would have viewed as less than fine," Kunzite countered patiently.

"Hey, I could do without your tone," Endymion said coolly, looking over at his guardian. "Look, my father's going to keep things a secret until I get back, and then I just have to...mitigate his concerns. Like I said, I'll say I couldn't bring myself to do anything, he'll...he'll have no problem believing that." He blinked rapidly a few times. "And Serenity, I knew she was going to be upset, I just needed her to accept my explanation."

"Did she?" Kunzite inquired. "I'm not convinced that she really believed it."

"She has to, my father was right there confirming it. She'll eventually come to accept it. Yes, she's not happy about it, but that's temporary. It'll pass."

Kunzite rolled his eyes. "I just have a hard time saying that something that ends with your wife being _that_ upset went well. And if I'm thinking that, then...well, you certainly should be as well, I'd say."

"Hey, hey," Endymion said warningly. "What...what are you getting at? Gods, I...Serenity is my wife! I _hate_ that she's upset by this, of course, I...I shouldn't even have to say that! How can you even imply something like that?"

"I'm...I'm sorry, Your Highness," Kunzite said slowly. "I just have concerns about...the way you're looking at this whole venture."

"I love Serenity more than anyone or anything in this universe," Endymion said insistently. "And it _kills_ me, knowing that she's back home right now, upset and...maybe, possibly, even questioning my honesty." He gave his head a couple of heavy shakes. "But, don't forget why I got involved with this in the first place. It's for her. It's for the restoration of her Kingdom. Bringing her birthright back to the status that it held for thousands of years."

Kunzite sighed, but ultimately nodded. "I...I understand that."

"If Serenity knew the stakes, and...she can never know, obviously, but if she knew what was going on here. Absent the breaking the law part, she would understand. Her being...unhappy for a few days is well worth it, if the end result is her getting to watch the Moon be rebuilt into a prosperous, desirable Kingdom in her lifetime. And as her husband, I have to be the one...strong enough to see that, and facilitate it!"

Kunzite stared down at one of the slowly filling glass beakers. "I suppose."

"And...it's not always easy to do what's best for your loved ones, sometimes you have to hurt them to help them. And I hate it, but...in this instance, it's what has to be done." Endymion absentmindedly placed his left hand on one of the empty tube furnaces. "This...disappointment she's feeling lasts a few days. A drop in the ocean. Compare that to how thrilled she'll be to watch the Moon Kingdom rise from the dead and join the rest of the galaxy again."

"Can you grab one of the sacks of raw from down below, actually?" Kunzite asked. "May as well, we'll have to start melting it down shortly here."

Endymion kneeled down after shuffling a handful of steps to his left, prying a trap door open next to his feet and setting the square metal plate down gently. The entire cargo hold was filled with identical thick burlap sacks, practically loading the entire hold to capacity. He reached down, grabbing the mouth of one of the bags. With a small grunt, he hauled the significantly heavy load up to the ship floor, setting it down next to the opening in the ground. He slid the door back into place.

"She's my wife, it's my marriage. I will deal with the consequences of my decisions as they come. But I stand by those decisions." Endymion got back up to his feet.

"Speaking of consequences," Kunzite said. "You should get started on getting this down."

The general tossed a silver packet about the size of his palm down onto the floor next to Endymion. It slid to a stop right next to Endymion's hand, and he took it.

"Rest assured, it will fill you up," Kunzite said as Endymion picked it up and carefully tore the top edge off of the packet. "If you can...keep it down."

Endymion put the open little container up to his nose and sniffed, face wrinkling. He frowned down at the contents, a bunch of brown spheres the size of his fingertip. He reached his hand in and withdrew one, feeling it's soft texture, squishing it between his fingers.

"It also has everything you need to keep your body running at a high level," Kunzite added. "They're the fanciest, most palatable survival rations I could find."

"Well, what does that say about the industry?" Endymion muttered, popping the little ball of sustenance into his mouth and chewing on it. His eyes squeezed shut tightly, face puckering down hard. "Why is it sour?!"

Kunzite casually went over to a crate on the floor in the near corner of the ship's main room, pulling the lid off to expose a half-dozen large cups and a bag full of tiny blue pills. He grabbed one of the cups and a pill, giving the pill a small squeeze before dropping it into the cup. After starting to vibrate, the pill suddenly began spinning around rapidly, then disgorged out a large quantity of water. An entire cup of water being compressed inside the tiny little capsule, it took only a few beats for the glass to be filled almost to the brim, the pill having disintegrated into nothing.

"Trust me, it disguises the actual taste. And that's a good thing." Kunzite brought the cup to Endymion, who quickly took it and took a large gulp out of it.

After swallowing, Endymion disdainfully regarded the packet, but ultimately kneeled down to set the glass down on the floor before dumping a small handful of the brown spheres into his palm. "Well. Here's to trying new things." He slapped his hand up against his open mouth, depositing the food on top of his tongue.

"Looks like there _is_ a touch of survival training mixed in here after all," Kunzite remarked as Endymion forced himself to swallow the mouthful down. He quickly chased it with a swig of water.

"This stuff had better be really good for me," Endymion grumbled, reaching down towards his right hip pocket. "O-oh, right." Endymion stood back up, looking over at one of the walls to the ship, at a steel handle, red button, and lever all right next to each other. He walked over to it, withdrawing a small white anklet with a single red bead on it from his pocket. He yanked the handle towards him, opening a chute, and then dropped the piece of jewelry down into it. He slammed the handle shut, and then held down the red button as he flicked the lever down, ejecting the pearl band out into space.

"What was that?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion gave a quick shrug. "Uh, nothing. Just...trash."

"

"Oh, don't even get me _started_ on the agency right now," Queen Jupiter muttered darkly, face bending down into a scowl. "Just...here I am, trying to get my head above water on being a Queen, really just applying myself the best I can, and they just storm in here and practically climb up my ass about some...theft at a chemical warehouse." She rolled her eyes. "I have _real_ problems trying to find an effective way to run this planet, I'm incredibly out of my element on this, and...ugh." Her arm suddenly became visible in the hologram as she wiped the back of it along her forehead.

"Yes, they've been...they've been on Mercury as well in recent times, actually," Princess Mercury chimed into the conversation. "It's been annoying, to be sure, but...they're just doing their job. Actually, the ones who you're directly dealing with, they're certainly just following orders. As frustrating as it's been, I...I actually sympathize with them, I'm sure they're not thrilled about being here and conducting all these long interviews."

"Yeah, I'll sympathize with them after I put my foot in their ass," Jupiter grumbled.

Serenity lazily rested her forearms down on the desk in front of her, looking down at the miniature holograms hovering a few finger-lengths above the desk surface. Four heads, each one belonging to one of her dearest friends, being projected from across the galaxy and put right in front of her for easy, seamless communication and conversation.

"Hey, Serenity, put in a good word for us," Jupiter suggested, the hologram of her head twisting a bit to look at the Moon Princess. "Your father-in-law is a big shot over there, isn't he? I've got my entire crew of advisors and officials getting grilled, I just feel awful for them!"

Serenity gave a little nod. "Oh, I...well, I don't know...how that works, really."

"It doesn't seem like they're all that close to being done on Mercury," the blue-haired Princess said sadly. "I, I don't even really know what they're looking for, it's so odd that they feel the need to...question hundreds of people here. I know there's that...extremely pure imperium being smuggled on Earth right now, I just...it's odd that they're here if that's what they're after."

"Yeah, they're nowhere near done over here either," Jupiter said. "All because of one stupid barrel."

"Hey, Serenity, what's up?" Queen Mars inquired, one of the heads turning towards Serenity yet again. "You're quiet today, that's not like you. What's going on with you?"

Princess Serenity gave a dragging little sigh. "I...I don't know. I guess...things just haven't been going the way I expected lately."

"Well, you certainly can't say something like that and then not elaborate," Princess Venus goaded. "Come on, Jupiter's been bitching long enough about her problems, let's hear it."

Jupiter scowled again. "Oh, Venus, you're lucky you're...three hundred million dolichos away. Or whatever the hell it is."

Serenity turned towards the representation of Mercury's head. "You remember what I told you about Endymion when you were here?"

"Yes," Mercury said.

"W-well...it's still happening." Serenity swallowed down hard. "A little before the wedding, I asked him to try to...include me in whatever it was he was doing, even if it was just telling me about it, and he gave some ridiculous excuse for why he couldn't say anything to me. So that was...weird, and I didn't like that, but...after that, I thought it was done, and things were fine, and now…" she gave a disbelieving little laugh. "He's gone for seven days. No communication, no contact, gone for seven days."

"No contact?" Mars repeated. "I...what? How is that even possible?"

"I mean...did he say why?" Venus inquired. "There aren't that many places in the galaxy anymore where you can't send communications. And why a Prince would ever spend so much as a beat in any one of those places, beyond me."

Serenity glumly propped her elbow up on the table, resting her chin on her hand. "Well. He said that he had to go off to do something called...survival training."

"Survival training?" Mercury repeated. "W-what does that even mean?"

"Apparently, something about...learning how to live in the woods, and...and hunt for food, I don't even really remember, it was...I've never heard of anything like that before! A-and, why would he ever need something like that? Why would any royal ever need to know how to do things like that? I think it's more likely that I get a platinum certification in...brain surgery than Endymion will ever actually need to know how to hunt and skin rabbits!"

"Mm," Jupiter grunted. "As a royal myself...I've certainly never heard of anything like that. At least, nothing that involves having to drop off the grid for seven days in a row. Jeez."

"Said it was a...family tradition," Serenity continued. "Men in his family have been doing it for hundreds and hundreds of years!" She rolled her eyes. "Just has to do it, right now, before I give birth, so...one day, he tells me all about this, and next day, poof. Gone!"

"I'm sorry," Mercury said. "That...well, that must be surprising, to have something sprung on you like that."

"I...I don't know if he thought that I actually believed it or not," Serenity muttered, looking down at the desk in front of her. "I mean, he must realize how it sounds, how ridiculous it appears."

"...do you believe him?" Venus asked, giving Serenity a curious look.

Serenity blinked vacantly a few times, blowing a puff of air from her nostrils. "I...I don't know. I mean, how can I? And then, how can I not?"

"What do you mean by that?" Mars asked. "I mean, how do you feel about it? Do you believe it?"

"It sounds so bizarre. Came from out of nowhere. So unbelievable, I'm almost tempted to believe it just because...well, how else could you even come up with something like that?!" She scowled. "His father was standing right there the whole time, saying he just forgot about it and that it had to be done now and that...oh, it just _has_ to be done. But...I don't know. I don't know how to feel."

Jupiter sighed. "Yeah, I...I understand that. It's definitely weird. Just...if he wasn't telling the truth, what would he be doing? What would he be hiding?"

Serenity put her hand up to her mouth. "That's what I'm trying to figure out." She grimaced. "I...I don't know. Which, honestly...I mean, if I can't think of a good reason for it, then I have to assume that he's just telling the truth, right? Ugh." She tilted her head downward, staring at the wood of the desk right in front of her. "I don't know. I just can't figure out how to feel."

The five-way conversation was silent for several moments, Serenity finally bringing her head up to look at her friends.

"Alright, well...sorry to leave things on that note, but I actually need to go," Queen Mars stated. "S-Serenity, I'm sure everything will be fine, just...try to keep a positive attitude. We'll talk again soon."

"Yeah, I've got my advisors practically knocking my door down trying to get in here," Jupiter agreed. "See you all. And Serenity, uh...well...love you."

One by one, the holographic heads disappeared from the air in front of Serenity, leaving the young Princess alone in the large bedroom yet again. With wide, vulnerable eyes, she looked all about, seemingly trying to find a solution to her problems on the heavily-decorated walls of the room.

She sighed, wrinkles of concern setting into her face as she rubbed at her right temple.

"

Princess Mercury immediate went into deep thought as she deactivated the holographic projector that had facilitated the long-range conversation. Seated at the desk in her absurdly flashy room, she folded her hands in her lap, blinking rapidly.

"Survival training?" she muttered under her breath, staring down at the communicator, now inactive, mind racing.

"

Endymion was in agony for what felt like the thousandth time in the last few days. As Kunzite had warned, living on a cramped spaceship for seven straight days was unlike anything the Crown Prince had ever experienced, and he would just as soon never experience it again. Every time he thought he had survived the hard part, he would quickly learn that this marathon synthesization session was one 'hard part' after the other.

Having to tolerate the unpleasant taste of the food rations was just the first part of a two-part ordeal. Endymion's stomach, accustomed to only the finest foods in all the galaxy, would complain non-stop at being introduced to the rations, which quickly turned into repeated latrine trips, to his eternal embarrassment. Sleep was both sporadic and painful, with only a thin little mattress between the Prince and the metal floor. Endymion had difficulty even getting to sleep until he was so exhausted he had no other choice.

Right now, his suffering was directly related to the work at hand. Seven of the eight tube furnaces were running, each of them hardening the purified imperium from it's liquid form back into a solid, generating an extreme heat that affected the temperature of the entire room. But all of them running at once made things insufferable, with the large spinning fans doing just barely enough to make things slightly less agonizing. Wearing a respirator mask, which only made his situation all the more difficult, Endymion's face was dripping sweat, fogging the mask, decreasing his vision. He had already stripped down to his undershirt, for all the good it did him. He leaned over to spray a white gas into the central chamber of the eighth and final furnace, cueing Kunzite to quickly pour a clear liquid from a bucket into the heated equipment.

After releasing the contents into the furnace, Kunzite sealed it up with the cap on to the tube attached to the ceiling. He reached up to remove his mask, prompting Endymion to rip his off.

"Augh!" Endymion gasped out loudly, booting it over into one of the corners where a couple of the rotating fans were pointed, going down to his knees right in front of the blasting cooled air. He panted heavily, wiping his face.

"You can ask for me to take us back to Earth any time, Your Highness," Kunzite offered, going over to the opposite side of the heated room.

Endymion took several beats to gather himself, closing his eyes and basking in the chilled air blowing onto him.

"I won't mock you at all, just ask and we'll head back immediately," Kunzite continued, dropping another tiny tablet into a large cup and watching it fill.

"We can...we can leave after both of those barrels are empty," Endymion grunted, crouching lower to the floor so the air could hit him in the face. "Not a second before."

"Your Majesty, I understand you might feel as if you have something to prove, but think it through, please!" Kunzite quickly cleared the length of the room to present the Prince with the cup, Endymion quickly taking it and glugging down the contents. "We have eight hundred libras of refined imperium, or we will after this batch is done. We take this back to Nephrite, it will take his network several cycles to sell it. That gives me plenty of time to train and test the chemistry abilities of Zoisite, make sure that he can produce the high quality that we need, and then have _him_ assist me! You've done very well here, you've lasted far longer than I expected, but there's no good reason to continue! You're in agony!"

Endymion huffed out a large breath, pushing his short black hair out of his face with both hands, then turned to look up at his general. "Has it affected my abilities?"

Kunzite's face curled downward a bit. "I'm sorry?"

"In the process, the synthesization, has...you say I'm in agony, but tell me. Be honest. Is my work suffering?" He spread his arms out to his sides, then swung them around towards the eight workstations. "You've been checking the purity levels on all the batches, is there a problem?"

Kunzite sighed, acknowledging he wasn't going to win this argument, and then reached down towards the pocket on his left hip. He withdrew a fat round bottle filled with tiny white pills, unscrewing the cap and pouring two out into his palm. "Fifteen batches to go. Fifteen-and-a-half, since this one isn't done yet."

"It'll get easier," Endymion said. "My body's adjusting."

"Zoisite is trained to handle these conditions, Your Highness. He wouldn't have to adjust. Same for Nephrite and Jadeite." He held the two pills out towards the Prince, allowing him to take them into his hand. "You could be sitting at home right now, in bed with your wife, or eating truffles, or riding Helios, keeping Serenity happy and unaware, all the while you still get what you want anyway."

Endymion slapped the pills down into his mouth, then guzzling down another mouthful of water to swallow them down.

"And I understand your concern about the purity level, but now that we're part of the way through, you must understand by now that...this isn't worth it. You being up here, Serenity being alone on Earth, barely believing your absurd alibi and feeling who-knows-what...all I'm saying, Your Highness, is that we should learn from this."

Endymion's eyelights fluttered a bit, his head dipping a slight amount before snapping back up.

"Just, I'm serious. There is no need for you to be involved in the actual production. That's true now, and it will be true going forward. No reason for it."

"How many people do you think have worked as miners on the moon?" Endymion asked, sitting down on the ground and leaning back a bit.

"I'm sorry?" Kunzite inquired. The general quickly walked over toward the near corner of the room, head turned to look at his charge, bending down to grab the small mattress from it's spot on the floor.

"In...say, recorded history, the last thirty-two hundred years, how many people have been employed as miners on the moon? Hundreds of millions? Billions? In its heyday, the Moon's population was close to two billion, it's never been lower than one billion, so...if you added it all up, maybe. Add in pre-recorded history, since we know people were digging around there back then, and we're talking...tens of billions, possibly."

Kunzite slowly came over, setting the mattress down next to Endymion, within the area that was cooled by the two fans.

"Some of them would work down there for years. Decades, even. Add it all up, we might have over a hundred billion days worth of labor. All of that time down there, drilling, searching, mapping...whatever." Endymion glanced over at the mattress, and then slowly crawled his way onto it. "All those people, all those days, all of them working towards one simple goal. Go down into the depths of the Moon, and find things of value to bring out. Ultimately, that's always been the intention. Anything that can be used or sold, bring it up. And...all that time, all those people, going down into the depths, over and over and over, and somehow they missed the most valuable thing in the whole galaxy. For thirty-two hundred years, it was just sitting there, waiting for someone to find it, and somehow it wasn't until...a few cycles ago that anyone did. And then, the people that _did_ find it? Completely unable to utilize the find in any way. It was like they hadn't found it."

Kunzite just stared down at Endymion as he continued to wax on, slowly laying down on the cushioned little pallet, resting his head down on it and turning on his side.

"And then...I go down there once...once. For the first time ever, just for a little while. My only intention is to have a little bit of fun with my wife and ride the carts around. No interest in finding anything. Not even a thought in my head. And _I'm_ the one that finds it. Not the billions of workers who dedicated their lives to finding minerals down there. But me, an Earth Prince just down there for a little lark. How can that happen?" Endymion's eyes slowly closed, the short-term sleeping pills taking rapid effect on the young man. Kunzite listened on.

"Think of...of the odds," Endymion mumbled, voice starting to slur and slow down slightly. "There was one night, maybe...last cycle, where I tried to calculate them, but...I didn't...even know where to start. Just think about what they must be, that it would be me that found all that imperium. That...that miner, Jericho, I think...he would have been dead in another half-cycle, f-forget him, I...may as well have been the first person to find it."

"I'm...not sure what your point is, Your Highness," Kunzite mumbled.

"I mean, the universe is random. That's what they teach. Everything that happens is just chaos. Particles crashing into each other at random, causing things to happen, nothing more than that. Nobody pulling the strings, nobody making things play out in an effective or satisfying or meaningful way. Science...science says that." Endymion rolled over heavily onto his back, eyes closed. "But...but how? How can it be random, that...that I...I find this? It just...has to...mean something."

Kunzite frowned a bit, slowly crouching down towards the floor.

"I just...I feel like...something...something or someone...meant for it to be me. It has to be something...like that," he continued in just barely above a whisper. "It couldn't just...be random. I was meant to find it. Meant to use it to save the galaxy. I...how can I...not...be here...when…"

Kunzite continued to listen, but after a few moments, glanced over to see that Endymion had finally dozed off entirely. With a bit of a sad look, with a touch of confusion mixed in as well, Kunzite lowered his head to the floor and closed his eyes. It would only be a few minutas before the heated imperium would need to be moved into the ovens.

"

Kasios danced his pen along a line at the bottom of a document, scribbling his signature across it before sliding it over to his left on the desk. Digging his right index finger into his temple, head down at the writing before him, he grumbled under his breath.

His office on _The Savery_ was the same as it had always been in terms of structure and design, but he now had a large map of the Earth on the wall right behind him, four points on the map highlighted with a blue dot. Right next to this map was a picture of Mimete's face, with a short black line extending out to the right of it, leading to a piece of paper that read "TUXEDO MASK". A second black line stretched from the top, going to another slip of paper marked with "BOSS?". All in all, frustratingly thin.

A knock at the door drew Kasios's attention, pushing his head up towards the portal across the room. He reached across the desk to his right, pushing a green button down with his finger and causing a light buzzing to sound from the door.

A moment later, it swung open, Naxos entering the chamber.

"Oh, Naxos! Good to see you," Kasios said absentmindedly. "Your brother's okay?"

"Yes, yes, he...I keep telling him, stop eating things that come out of the ocean." Naxos's forehead furrowed. "You can't trust things that come out of the ocean."

Kasios gave a little shrug. "We came out of the ocean."

Naxos stopped halfway to the desk. "W-what?"

"Yeah, we did." Kasios set his pen down on the table atop the sheet of paper he now had in front of him. "Like...everyone. Millions of years ago, right?"

"Hey, maybe on your planet," Naxos muttered, quickly closing the distance between him and Kasios, sweeping across the office. "All I know is I didn't come out of an ocean."

"W-whatever, uh...he'll live?" Kasio asked. "Your brother?"

"He'll definitely live," Naxos answered. "It wasn't...it wasn't like that. Don't get me wrong, it was bad, but nothing lethal or permanent. He thought it might be that bad, which is why he wanted me there, but...oysters, man. What do you expect?"

"You need to catch up on things? I could help," Kasios offered.

"No, no, I'm good, I was only gone two days." He looked up at the map of the Earth on the wall. "Well, wait, is that a new arrest?"

"Y-yes, actually, we picked up a fourth just recently," Kasios said. "Class E, though, so...they're sweating him down on Earth, but realistically, not going to get anything. Carat and a half, though, so that's not nothing."

Naxos nodded slowly, taking a seat in one of the chairs against the right wall, and then pulling it over to the space in front of the desk. "Anything...anything else developing?"

"Um…" Kasios puffed his cheeks out a bit. "N-not really. But we've just started still, it's been a handful of days."

"Mmhmm," Naxos grunted, giving a non-committing nod.

"Hey, four arrests already, that...the way I see it, every arrest we get gives us another chance to nab someone with a decent amount on them, so...every pointless arrest gets us closer to the one that cracks this wide open. Really, four arrests in a case this fresh, I'm happy! Everyone should be happy! It's just a matter of time."

"Right," Naxos said. "How much time do you think, though?"

Kasios gave a little throat-based grunt. "I...who can say for sure? I'd be guessing, but my point is, logic dictates that it _will_ happen."

Naxos's nose wrinkled. "Possibly. But, look, can we talk about that?"

"I...I guess," Kasios said curtly. "What's to talk about right now, though?"

"Well, let's explore the possibility that...it doesn't happen. I mean, buddy, we're dealing with an entirely new animal here, you have to understand that. What if you just keep...picking up low level street dealers that you have to let off the hook before we can even get them up here?"

Kasios blinked a few times. "Well, if that happens, then we'll have to...consider other options. Until then, we act logically. And logically, it has to happen at some point, we...twenty-four carats!" He unconsciously slapped his palm on his desk. "Twenty-four! I lose more than that in waterweight every time I take a leak!"

"You know this stuff is selling for fifteen hundred creds a carat on the street?" Naxos asked. "Twenty-four carats, that's thirty-six grand worth. I don't think this is as much of a sure thing as you do. There's just no need to carry around a bunch of it. If this was forty-five percent pure product, twenty-four carats would go for less than three hundred."

"I know!" Kasios snapped. "I know, I...look, there have got to be layers to this thing. These dealers, they're getting the product from somewhere, right? There has to be someone out there who's in charge of...getting the product out to the street dealers! That's how distribution networks work!"

"Those guys aren't easy to catch," Naxos pointed out. "They don't put themselves out there like the dealers, a lot of networks use dead drops to make it almost impossible to link them to the process. And we don't even know how many rungs this network has. No way to be sure we can even depend on this hypothetical person that we catch to lead us to to the top. No way to guarantee that he or she flips, either."

"Then we follow the ladder up!" Kasios grunted. "Okay, look." He put his hands out towards Naxos. "Why don't you just get to the point that I know you want to make so I can refute it?"

Naxos sighed, looking down at the floor in front of him. "Kasios, buddy, I'm not here to tell you how to do your job or run your investigation. But, there will come a time where either you change the laws on Earth, or the agency will get involved directly. And I know which of those two options you'd prefer."

"Earth has the strictest imperium smuggling laws in the galaxy already, outside of Venus," Kasios protested. "Compared to Uranus and Neptune, I'm already a fascist. Do you have any idea how much unregulated imperium you have to have on Uranus in order to get stuck with a sentence longer than an Earth-year?"

"Y-yes, Earth is already quite harsh on imperium smuggling, I know," Naxos said nervously. "But, Earth now has a...unique problem that might require even more drastic measures. And, I know that the rest of the high council is kind of...waiting around for you to handle it yourself, because that's one of the benefits of having a King on the council. They can handle things like this on their own instead of us having to force our way in and fight for new laws. So...you know…maybe we should take a look at the way they're doing things on Venus. Last I checked, there's no imperium black market anywhere there."

"Well...I'm sorry, but there are other considerations here. Venus has driven themselves halfway to bankruptcy implementing the apparatus required to monitor imperium usage and make smuggling impossible, and look at what it's done to them! Come on, we all know it, the population of Venus can't stand the current regime. Fascism is expensive, and not just monetarily." Kasios frowned.

"You wouldn't need to copy everything that Venus is doing," Naxos assured him. "I'm not asking you to get rid of anything surrounding search-and-seizure laws, or assumed innocence, but there are a few things that could be added that would severely hamper our...Tuxedo Mask individual. I understand that you're not interested in loading up your prisons with thousands of minor, non-violent criminals, but it could just be a temporary thing until we resolve this. It's not like you have to worry about winning any elections to stay in power."

Kasios's eyebrows squished together towards the middle-point of his face. "Okay. And then what? I change laws, I adopt some sort of zero-tolerance policy towards imperium smuggling on Earth...and then what happens?"

"Well...this new distribution chain will find it a lot harder to operate, people we arrest will be far more receptive to flipping when faced with spending years of their life behind bars on _The Savery_ , and we'll have an easier time taking care of this Tuxedo Mask." Naxos couldn't help but look rather confused at the question.

"Let me walk you through this," Kasios said, a touch of impatience in his voice. "Here's what would happen. I change the laws, Tuxedo Mask shuts down his street operation, ramps down his selling significantly. Probably starts selling exclusively to organized crime outfits, allowing the process of selling to be completely private and under-the-radar. Maybe he moves to another planet, where the agency doesn't have as much power. Either way, our ability to find him and take him down is drastically reduced. As long as he has two functioning brain cells to rub together, he'll take his dealers off the street the moment he thinks that there's a risk of them flipping when they get arrested. Great, we've...slowed him down, inconvenienced him. Last I checked, that's not our mission statement."

"We don't know that for sure," Naxos contested. "Yes, it's possible, but how many millions of people over the years have risked long-term prison sentences carrying around bags full of unregulated imperium? These people, they care about making money a lot more than you and me."

"No, no, he...I change the imperium smuggling laws, I lose him forever. This isn't like other operations that won't be financially feasible unless they can street sling. This operation must be printing money, they can afford to ramp down if they have to. I don't want to make his life harder. I want to stick in in a cell up here for twenty years and have all of his product in our vaults." Kasios scowled down at the papers in front of him. "We have to bait him a bit to keep him exposed. The only way."

"Kasios, I don't know if you're aware, but...okay, I'm here as your friend, just to give you a heads up. I'm not trying to force you to do anything. And your concern is valid, but I want you to know that there will come a time where the council loses their patience. And it would be far better for you if you were the one altering the Earth laws, and not the agency getting directly involved."

"Believe me, Naxos, I know," Kasios insisted. "I'm aware. I'll deal with that scenario when it comes, but until then...we play it my way. We give him a reason to stick his neck out, give us a target to fire at."

"Alright, I just...I wanted you to be aware," Naxos said, standing up to his feet. "I'm sorry to butt heads like this, I'm not attacking you or trying to tell you what to do, it's just...well, yeah."

Kasios leaned back in the cushioned leather chair, a tired look on his face as he stared over at his friend. "I...thank you, Naxos. Believe me, I feel the pressure here."

"Sorry," Naxos repeated. "I...sorry."

"Hey, I'm happy to look on the bright side," Kasios reasoned. "At least I finally got you calling me buddy."

With a grin, Naxos stepped away from the chair. "See you later, Your Highness."

Kasios just gave an exasperated shrug, sighing as he rested his head back against the chair right behind him.

"

Endymion placed the burlap sack onto the square platform on the floor, right next to one of the workstations, bending down to check the digital reader at the top of the device.

"Ninety-nine point eighty-one," the Prince reported, taking the bag off the scale and toting it over to where the trap door in the floor of the ship was. He kneeled down to open up the compartment, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of green string to tie the mouth closed.

"Ninety-nine point eighty-one," Kunzite repeated, stepping over into the corner where two of the high-powered fans were focused and crouching down. "So two thousand, three hundred and five point thirty-two libras total."

With a large puff of breath, Endymion put his hands on his hips and leaned his head back. "Alright. After distribution costs, I get two point twenty-eight million per libra...so...hm." He blinked a few times, straightening back up. "Wow. Approximately five point twenty-six billion creds worth of Imperium, then."

"I have the same," Kunzite agreed. "Minus fines, minus loss, probably five point two at the least. Nephrite estimates eight libras per day, so...just shy of three hundred days to move it all. Call it ten cycles."

Endymion milled over to where Kunzite was crouched. "Kunzite. Buddy." He slapped at his general's back, bending down a bit to get near his level, clearly exhausted. "Five point two _billion_ creds in seven days."

"Well, ten cycles," Kunzite corrected. "That's...that's the right way to look at it."

"We did it," Endymion said, breaking out into a grin, looking right at Kunzite's face. "We did it."

"I don't know if I'd say that," Kunzite muttered. "Your Highness, we've done quite well, and things are certainly much more viable than before, but even at six billion annually, we're still just at maybe five percent of the Moon's annual budget, and then we have—"

"Kunzite," Endymion said with a violent little push of air, slapping on his general's shoulder again. "Let's just...you know. Come on, let me have this."

Kunzite, after a pause, nodded. "Alright. Good job, Your Highness. We've done very well."

With slightly shaky legs, Endymion got back up. "Wow. I made it. We made it."

Kunzite stood up, clapping his hands together. "Well, I suppose we're done here. I'll just make sure that one of your other generals is trained enough to assist me up here some time in the next ten cycles, and we've got a good system."

"Well, hold on now," Endymion said. "Before we do that, let's, maybe...that second barrel, still a little bit at the bottom. While we're here, maybe we should use it up?"

"Uh…" Kunzite furrowed his brow. "Maybe enough for forty libras more, I don't know if...it's a good use of time. Don't you want to go home?"

"Yes, but...I mean, we're all the way up here already, so why not—"

Suddenly, the ship shuddered a tiny bit, making both Endymion and Kunzite have to take an unsteady step to keep from falling over. Kunzite immediately raced up to the cockpit of the ship, Endymion hot on his heels.

Kunzite crashed into the back of the pilot's chair, looking down at a screen on the central console. A soft little alarm was ringing from the console.

"We're in a containment beam," Kunzite grunted, reaching forward and tapping the screen a couple times.

"From what?!" Endymion demanded, leaning up over Kunzite's shoulder to look.

Kunzite grimaced. "Salvage ship."

"Are you kidding me?!" Endymion hissed. "A salvage ship?! Out here?!"

Kunzite frantically ran his fingers across the screen, reading digital readouts from the ship.

"Get us out of here!" Endymion shouted, reaching up around Kunzite towards the controls.

"We're not going anywhere," Kunzite said darkly. "Not in this ship." He stood back up, away from the screen, thinking.

"Well, what do we do?!" Endymion said, voice just on the edge of panic, thinking about the twenty-three hundred libras of highly illegal purified imperium down in the ship's cargo holds.

Kunzite quickly spun around, storming back into the main room of _The Qesem_ , purposefully striding through the workstations, into the back.

"Please tell me you have an idea!" Endymion said, quickly twisting his head all about, looking around the room, trying to come up with something himself.

Kunzite emerged from the back of the ship, holding a large red and white axe in either hand. He bent down and slid one of them over to Endymion, and then quickly went over to one of the workstations and quickly swung the other one up over his head, bringing it down hard into the tube furnace.

"What?!" Endymion gasped as Kunzite quickly mutilated the expensive chemistry equipment with the sharp weapon.

"We've got _maybe_ a minuta before they send a boarding party over," Kunzite explained, again smashing the furnace with the blade with a powerful blow. "And they _can't_ find an obvious imperium lab when they do."

Endymion watched Kunzite take a massive swing at the oven next to the furnace, and then bent down to grab the axe. Getting a running start at one of the workstations, with a primal grunt, he buried the blade deep into one of the furnaces.

Working with an fevered pace, the two young men ran around the room, swinging at everything that could possibly be identified as chemistry equipment, working to render it all unrecognizable at first glance. Glassware was shattered with a loud crashing sound, beakers and jars smashed into tiny pieces. Each workstation was dismantled, swing by swing, objects discarded to the floor as soon as they were unrecognizable.

As Endymion turned his attention to the wooden cabinets in the corner, Kunzite quickly hacked up the fans, trying to make the room look at chaotic and inexplicable as possible. The very limited amount of time they had was ticking by far too quickly.

The Prince began using the dull end of the axe to heavily dent the sides of the two barrels. Kunzite, however, now reached down into the cargo holds, pulling out one of the sacks of refined product and setting it down on the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Endymion asked, out of breath from all of the destructive work of gutting the room.

"Giving them a reason to not take us back to a salvage yard," Kunzite answered, reaching into the sack and grabbing one of the ounce-heavy cubes. Quickly re-sealing the bag and kicking it back down below, he reached into his chest pocket and removed the silver laser pen. Kneeling down and clearing out a spot on the floor, he started to cautiously slice off shreds from the cube, letting the miniscule amounts of imperium form a heap in front of him.

Endymion went back to destroying everything the best he could, running over to the cabinets again, axe raised.

"Pass me one of the cans of P2O!" Kunzite instructed. Endymion lowered the axe, then managed to wrench the warped cabinet door open. Fumbling around among the collection of scattered supplies, he found a full, sealed can and tossed it over to his general.

Kunzite thought for a moment, and then stumbled up to his feet, lurching across the room over to a small little drawer built into the wall. He ripped it open and then pulled a collection of sheets of paper from it. The formulas Nephrite's network had collected cycles ago. Endymion, meanwhile, continued to beat the axe into the cabinet, gashing massive slashes into it. After a few more swings, he knocked it over loudly. With the room satisfactorily disheveled, he ran over to the window, looking out into space, craning his head around. He couldn't find the salvage ship.

"Forget trying to see the ship!" Kunzite yelled. "Bust up the tables!" He was taking the tiny shavings of imperium and placing them on top of the sheets of paper, then balling up the paper and sprinkling them in the liquid inside the can Endymion had just tossed him.

With all the strength his tired arms could muster, Endymion began to smash down on the tables, trying to buckle the surfaces. After achieving this, he started hacking at the table legs.

Kunzite, meanwhile, had quickly fashioned ten of the wadded up, dampened balls of paper, each one with a tiny amount of imperium inside. He jumped to his feet and began to spread them around the room, hiding them underneath the rubble caused by the recent axe-related destruction.

Suddenly, a red light built into the left-side wall began to flash rapidly, Kunzite looking up at it as he was positioning another of his wads.

"A shuttle is coming over to board!" He turned to Endymion, who was cutting up another set of table legs. "Get down below, now!"

Endymion discarded the axe to the side and jumped over to the trap door, swinging it open and diving down into the small lake of imperium sacks. Twenty-three of them marked with a green tie, and one of them without one. He rolled over, giving room for Kunzite to follow suit.

Kunzite, meanwhile, was watching out one of the windows, finding the Class-A shuttle that was quickly closing in on them. A red ship that was small even by typical Class-A standards, it began to line itself up to connect it's docking port to the main door of _The Qesem._

Scowling at how inexact this would have to be, Kunzite pulled a small rectangular device from his belt pouch, flipping the lid open and snapping his thumb along a switch inside, causing a tiny flame to start dancing from the top of it. He stood there, listening intently, finally hearing the port make contact with the bottom of the ship and start to form a suction seal.

Reasoning he could wait no longer, he began to place the flame up against the damp wad of paper at his feet, getting it to catch, and then quickly ran over to a second one. With great speed and precision, he found each of the ten he had made, getting each one to catch fire.

Endymion wanted to call to his guardian, but was afraid to make noise. He knew that the salvagers were likely in the docking tube, on their way up. Face covered in sweat, heart pounding, he was almost afraid to ask what Kunzite had in mind.

With beats to spare, Kunzite gracefully slid down into the trap door, down into the cargo hold, closing the hatch behind him as he set himself down next to the Crown Prince. With a deep breath to settle himself, Kunzite looked at Endymion and placed his finger to his lips.

The entry hatch to the main compartment of the ship was slid open, and both of them could hear the sound of footsteps clanging against the ladder rungs.

"Holy shit, I think we have ourselves one of the Notre models! No wonder it got abandoned, these things are trash."

Endymion's ears practically twitched as he strained to hear the voices up above.

"Wow, what in the hell happened here? Look at this place!" More footsteps, these on the floor right above their heads.

"Man, I don't get it, how does this make sense? Check the cockpit for bodies."

A short silence. Kunzite closed his eyes slowly.

"I don't see anything. So what, this ship got used for one hell of a party, then gets abandoned out in the middle of nowhere? Kinda weird. They just jump onto another ship out here?"

"We don't know how long this thing has drifted. We'll check and see when the last time the engines got turned on after we get it into the yard, but it might be years."

"Earth years?"

"What other year is there?"

"There are other years!"

"What other years are there worth talking about? Anyway, the hull's still intact, atmosphere in here is fine. Take off your helmet if you want."

"I don't think it's been abandoned that long, the power's still running. Just for the sensors and main console, but those don't last that long typically. Oh, yeah, I checked, the serial numbers and ID tags have been physically filed off in the cockpit, so there's no way we'll be able to trace an owner or origin."

"Good for us, we'll definitely be able to sell it now. Check the cargo holds."

Kunzite's hands balled into fists, and he reluctantly rested his right fist atop the plasma blaster on his belt. Endymion's face twitched down to look at the weapon, then up to the trap door up ahead.

Suddenly, a sharp explosion from above. Endymion couldn't help but jump, reaching up to cover his mouth with both hands to avoid yelling in shock.

"Oh SHIT!"

Another explosion. Then another.

"GET BACK TO THE SHUTTLE! BEFORE THE HULL BREACHES!"

Several beats passed, the sound of rapid-fire clanks on metal ladder rungs clearly audible just before another ripping blast.

Kunzite just sat back, listening to the explosions, counting them. They could also both hear the sound of the docking tube detaching from _The Qesem_.

"Eight," Kunzite said under his breath.

"Eight?" Endymion repeated quietly.

Another explosion snapped off.

"Nine," Kunzite said.

"Do you have any idea how big space is?" Endymion grumbled. "How massive the empty areas between orbital bodies are?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "All of that space, and a salvage ship finds us?!"

An explosion from above.

"Ten." Kunzite jumped up and reached over his head to the hatch, pushing it up on its hinges and quickly climbing up. Endymion followed quickly, popping up in time to watch Kunzite stride over into the cockpit.

"How can that even happen?" Endymion grunted, closing the cargo hatch after pulling himself back out onto the floor.

"Come on, come on, come on," Kunzite muttered under his breath, watching the screen on the center console. He swung himself into the pilot seat.

Endymion came up behind his general, grabbing the back of the seat in both hands. "Those explosions—"

"Refined imperium combined with P2O liquid, exposed to a flame, causes an explosive reaction," Kunzite quickly explained. "And now, hopefully, they're afraid that the whole ship is going to erupt, and they won't want to be so close to it when it does, so…"

The screen suddenly stopped blinking red. Kunzite immediately flicked two switches on the console in front of him, and then held down a yellow button next to them before reaching up and yanking on a lever. Within a beat, the ship's engine had sparked to life, and in the next beat, it jumped forward, launching itself far away from the salvage ship.

"WHOO!" Endymion exclaimed, slamming his hands down on the headrest of the pilot's chair. "Wow! Great job!" He placed his hands on Kunzite's shoulders. "Holy shit, I...we're in the clear!"

"Not even close," Kunzite protested, watching stars streak by out the front window of the ship. "They definitely saw this ship's engine power on and then jump away. They're going to report this, and it'll eventually work its way up to someone who figures it might be a mobile imperium lab."

Endymion's relieved smile faded, and he looked down at Kunzite. "Well, that should take awhile, right?"

"It might." Kunzite ran his finger across the center console screen. "Might not. We need to offload our cargo, and then destroy this ship immediately, is the point."

"Alright, um...you had it parked in a junkyard anyway, just ask the guy to scrap it."

"Not good enough," Kunzite said. "As soon as we dump the cargo, we're launching this ship into the sun."

Endymion gave some rapid-fire nods.

"

Endymion and Kunzite unfurled a large red tarp over the pile of tan sacks, rolling the sheet so that all of them were covered up.

"Close enough?" Endymion asked, looking down at the tarp and then glancing around. The two young men were out in the middle of a dry, rocky, mountainous area, a hot sun beating down on everything, no trees to offer protection. The hilly surroundings made it easy for a large hump to blend in, meaning that the five billion plus worth of refined imperium would be reasonably safe for a short time here.

"It'll do," Kunzite replied, bending down to stick some spikes down into the ground to keep the tarp down. "Not that often anyone comes through here anyway, and it'll only be here for a bit."

Endymion watched Kunzite work, and then copied him, pulling a little prong out and embedding it deep into the ground, having it hold the tarp tight.

"Man, that was...that was a lot of equipment we had to bust up," Endymion said ruefully. "Kind of fun, though. Don't know if I've ever done anything like that before."

With the tarp secure over the massive haul of imperium, Kunzite reached into his belt pouch behind him and pulled out a small screen, holding it up in his hands and peering down at it.

"I suppose we can afford more." Endymion slowly ambled over next to his general, looking down at the screen. "Maybe get a better ship. Something bigger, a more efficient setup. I don't know, there has to be a better way than that."

" _The Qesem_ is almost there," Kunzite said, the screen showing the perspective of a camera attached to the backrest of the pilot's chair on board the ship. Stars were streaking by as the ship flew at maximum speed, making recognizing anything impossible. "Any time now, the hull will fail because of the heat, and there won't be a thing left not too long after that."

Endymion grimaced, slowly reaching up to put his arm up around Kunzite's shoulders, watching. The camera flickered a bit, and the front window was beginning to crack. "It was a nice ship, though. Served our purposes admirably. Kind of sad, actually."

Kunzite had no reply, simply blinking a couple times as the window developed more and more fractures. Finally, it gave, shattering. The camera gave out, the screen now displaying a pure black. He re-pocketed the screen.

"There it went," Endymion said. "Gods, I...still can't believe that. How does a salvage ship just...happen upon us like that?"

"The universe is random, Your Majesty," Kunzite mused. "The universe is random."

Endymion gave a couple of relenting nods, pulling his most trusted general a little closer.


	18. Stuck in the Middle

Chapter 18: Stuck in the Middle

A/N: First of all, my vacation is over, so I expect to be back to updating twice a week for the foreseeable future.

Second, I hit 3,000 views on the 9th of January so I want to say, thank you so much to all my readers, whether I know you or not. This significant milestone means a lot to me, and I'm looking forward to hitting many more!

"

Stretching his arms out to his sides, Endymion stared down the door to his bedroom. He groaned, gritting his teeth, rocking his body back and forth slightly.

"Alright. Alright. Just weather the storm, buddy." Endymion nodded, then reached forward to open the door.

It slid open and he quickly stepped inside. Eschewing a bombastic entrance, he just walked inside quietly, looking around the room that he had been away from for seven days. He relished these handful of beats, and then turned to the left to find his wife.

Serenity was laying back on the bed, pregnant belly expanded out even more it seemed. She was holding a book up in front of her eyes.

"Hey," Endymion said softly.

Serenity's eyes rotated over to look at Endymion, lifting her head slightly off the pillow. She just as quickly went back to her book.

Endymion gave a little shrug, and then purposefully walked across the room, over to the far side, hands in his pockets.

"It's been quite an ordeal," Endymion said loudly, glancing over his shoulder as he walked over to the liquor cabinet. "I mean, spending the night out in the woods, wow. You can read about it all you want, but you don't have the first clue about it until you actually live it."

He went behind the counter, reaching down to open one of the cabinets, pulling out a chilled drawer. "And trying to build a rabbit trap out of random things you find in the forest, brutal. Genuinely don't know how people do it on a regular basis. I—"

His right hand pulled out an empty glass bottle, freezing him mid-sentence. He held it up in front of his face, giving it a couple of gentle shakes, observing the insignificant amount of brown liquid pooled at the very bottom. Just a few drops.

He stared at the bottle for a few beats, blinking, face wrinkled in confusion. Then, he looked over to his wife. With a scowl of determination on his face, he quickly marched over towards his bed, the neck of the bottle firmly gripped in his right hand.

He rounded the bed rapidly, stopping at the side of it that Serenity was on, in her peripheral vision. He held the bottle up.

"I'm quite positive that this bottle wasn't empty when I left," he said sternly, giving it a firm shake. Serenity glanced over at the bottle, giving a sad, guilty little frown, before looking back at the book. "You're free to start blaming the maids any time now."

Serenity, however, didn't bother to defend herself, instead painting a clear picture with her facial expression.

"Seriously?" Endymion asked, hostility in his voice.

"It was mostly empty when you left," Serenity argued, thought her voice was muted and quiet, barely a mumble. "Only enough for a glass and a half. And I already feel awful about it, so you don't have to guilt-trip me."

Endymion's face hardened, clear anger in his eyes as he glared at his wife. "Serenity. You are at an advanced stage of pregnancy with a future member of the Earth royal family!"

"I didn't know that, tell me more," Serenity said caustically, closing the book and setting it down on the bed to her left.

"Gods, I...okay." Endymion lowered the bottle down to his side. "I am sorry that things haven't gone exactly the way you wanted recently, Serenity. But there are bigger things at stake here, and you should know that. Grow up."

He stormed back over to the liquor cabinet, loudly slapping the empty bottle down onto the counter, then grabbing one of the sealed, full bottles from the cold drawer. He slammed the drawer shut, and then turned around to grab a clean glass.

"You think I've been having fun the last seven days?" he called out loudly, opening a smaller drawer right above the one with the bottles, revealing a collection of round ice cubes. Using a pair of black tongs, he deposited four of them into the glass. "Out in deep space on a small ship, simulating what it's like to have no power, trying to find a way to generate heat to stay warm, sleeping on the floor, believe me. You're the lucky one, getting to stay here."

He took the full bottle and the glass of ice with him, striding over to the bathing room door on the opposite side. "Trust me, I wish I didn't have to do seven straight days of survival training."

"Still sticking to that one, huh?" Serenity said. Endymion froze a few steps away from the door, then twisted his head around, staring at his wife. She had gone back to her book.

Endymion opened his mouth, and then closed it, squeezing his eyes shut and swallowing. "Serenity, I don't know what you mean by that. But I suggest you get used to the concept of there being more things happening in my life than just you."

With that, he turned around, quickly sweeping into the bathing chamber, slamming the door shut behind him.

"

Submerged in the heated basin of water up to his neck, Endymion rested the back of his head up on the cushioned platform, closing his eyes, still frowning. A small brown table was just over to his right, supporting the weight of the mostly-full bottle of light brown liquid and the half-full glass of ice floating in the same liquid.

"Great job, there," Endymion muttered under his breath. "Phenomenal work."

He reached his right hand up to grab the glass, taking a drink from it. The powerful jets of water being sprayed along his back down in the basin, going to work on his muscles and nerves, helped relax him after the extended stint aboard the _The Qesem_.

He tried to think on more positive things to settle his mind, which was currently being pulled between anger and frustration. Five point two billion creds worth of refined imperium were now sitting in a securely locked room in one of Nephrite's safehouses, having been transported a couple sacks at a time by Nephrite and Kunzite. Soon, inside of a year, it would be sold out to the civilians of Earth. The Prince wouldn't even have to do any more work at this point. He had satisfactorily set things up to where there was nothing to do but watch his 'business' account take in money. So long as they had unfettered access to the imperium vein on the Moon, and nobody else found it, this venture was going to work.

He couldn't work the frown off his face, however. He hadn't expected Serenity to express herself in such an overt and destructive way. It did bring up the question of whether she'd actually be able to shrug this off quickly. And more than that, she had possibly endangered the well-being of his first child! Just thinking about it made his blood boil. All the precautions they had taken to ensure an ideal situation for the pregnancy, and she'd throw it away on something so trivial as being unhappy for a few days?!

Melodramatic, to be sure. Two glasses of a fairly-mild alcoholic drink was highly, highly unlikely to have any sort of effect on the child. But the principle of the act was more than enough to irritate him.

He opened his eyes, glancing over at the bathing room door, trying to figure what his next move should be. Nothing sounded especially appealing. He groaned.

"Ah, boy," Endymion muttered, raising his soaked left hand up to his face and rubbing it on his forehead. "Come on."

"

What was otherwise a quiet, peaceful afternoon on Earth was being broken ever so slightly by the staccato repetition of rapid clops. The horse enclosure behind the Earth palace was being utilized on this day, Helios racing along the brown track along the outside, right by the fence. Prince Endymion sat on the horse's back, leaning down low to cut down on wind resistance. Holding the reins in his hands, Endymion applied a continuous, gentle pressure to his prize steed, goading Helios to continue galloping at full speed.

Endymion, a tight grimace on his face, embraced the sensation of the wind blasting into his face as he accelerated as much as his horse could handle. He had already made at least five full rotations around. He didn't really have a plan for how many more he would be taking. He knew that a horse as strong as Helios could handle many more before even the slightest bit of fatigue set in.

He barely even had to think about it after awhile. Steering the horse was a simple matter, giving it a tiny pull to the left every time a bend in the track came up. The straightaways took care of themselves, Helios sprinting across the dirt by his own volition. This allowed him more opportunity to think things over, mulling the situation.

He hadn't really made any progress when he noticed Kunzite standing just outside the fence, watching him. With a yank on the reins, he slowed Helios down to a gentle gallop, then a trot. Gradually, the horse slowed to a stop underneath Endymion, and he dismounted over to the right side.

"Good boy," Endymion said, coming up to stroke the side of Helios's mane with his hand. He reached down into his rider's pouch on his belt, pulling out a half of a red apple with the core carved out. He raised it up on his palm close to the horse's mouth, and Helios took it in his teeth. Within beats, he had consumed it. "Alright, back to the stables!" He tapped Helios on the side with his palm, and the horse slowly wheeled around to take off, running inside the track and onto the grassy field.

Endymion turned his focus to his guardian, quickly closing the distance to the fence.

"How are things?" Kunzite asked. "How is Serenity?"

Endymion's face puckered. "She'll come around."

"I see," Kunzite replied, a discouraged look on his face, twisting his head to look up at the Earth Palace. The rear side of the structure was no less imposing than any other, with several stories worth of marble and crystal accounted for. "It's just, it's been eight days since we got back, so…"

"She's not really saying very much to me," Endymion admitted, putting his hands on his hips and similarly looking up at the palace. "You know...just _has_ to make sure that I know how unhappy she is." He rolled his eyes. "But, how long can she keep it up, with that baby prepping to pop out? Cycle, maybe a bit more, she'll be a mother, so, worst-case scenario she won't possibly be able to remember any of this by then."

"You are actively trying to get her to come around, right?" Kunzite asked, giving his charge a slightly caustic glare. "Not just waiting for her to forget on her own?"

"Yes, obviously, now get out of my marriage, that's not your realm," Endymion said dismissively. "Give me some, how about some good news? Hm?"

Kunzite twisted his head around slowly, scanning the nearby area, before saying anything. "Everything's flowing. Still only the four total arrests, things are picking up just like Nephrite said. Nothing out of the ordinary to report."

Endymion nodded. "We should consider expanding."

Kunzite's cheek twitched a bit. "How do you mean that?"

"We need to grow our operation. You're right, even six billion creds a year isn't enough. We need to keep accelerating. Exponential growth. These people we're selling to, if they're willing to buy unregulated imperium, it stands to reason that they might be willing to sell it."

"That's diving into some very significant risk," Kunzite argued. "Remember, every member of Nephrite's network was personally vetted by him. We lose our assurance of competency if we start to bring on customers as sellers. And their loyalty, we have no way of guaranteeing that they won't just feign interest in order to run off with the imperium." Kunzite folded his arms over his chest, turning around and leaning up against the fence, looking at at the expansive grassy field surrounding the Earth Palace off to the west. "That could be more trouble than it's worth."

"If Nephrite vetted those men, then it stands to reason than those men are trustworthy. And if that's the case, their ability to vet others to come on board should also be trustworthy," Endymion countered. "Imagine if all of Nephrite's men, spread out across the Earth, had three or four men working underneath them. We could clear twenty billion a year. If we want to actually put a dent in things, we need something like that. Think about it."

"Also, let's remember, we're playing this safe," Kunzite continued, tugging at the collar of his grey uniform. "We're keeping to areas that aren't taken by other dealers. Exponential growth means we step on some old, long-established dealing networks that _will_ push back."

"Old dealing networks," Endymion hissed. "Old, as in out of date. Nobody else has what we have, not even close. Those networks, selling garbage product synthesized by children. People will take our product over theirs every time, if given the choice."

Kunzite pursed his lips a bit. "Your Highness, it just might not be a good time to be so aggressive. We've got a good thing going for the moment. Exponential growth might have to wait."

Endymion put his index finger up towards Kunzite. "Keep it in mind, though. We have something here, but we need to grow it. We stagnate, then, well, you're right, it's not worth the effort we're putting in." Suddenly, his eyes popped open. "O-oh, check this out!"

He pulled the left side of his riding jacket open and reached into the inside pocket, pulling out a small little toy-like object. Two perfectly round pieces of wood, one painted to resemble the Earth and the other the Moon, were tethered together by a thin white piece of rope a couple finger-lengths long. He tossed it to Kunzite, who caught it.

"What's this? A toy?" Kunzite asked, holding the two spheres and looking down at the rope.

"I was making toys for the baby," Endymion explained. "Lots of woodworking. But I was thinking, you know, now that we lost _The Qesem_ , I needed to do something to hide those first two uncias that we made that I kept. So…" He glanced down at the object of wood and string. "I figure that's a pretty safe place to hide something."

"Ah," Kunzite said, giving both wooden spheres a shake. "That's good. Just maybe don't keep it on your person going forward."

"I'll put it up on the dash of the next ship we get for the purpose of synthesization," Endymion explained. "Speaking of which…"

"Yes, I wanted to bring that up," Kunzite said, throwing a quick glance around yet again. "After the events with _The Qesem_ , it's occurred to me that there could be some difficulties getting a new ship."

"

"Do you have a few secundas, Your Highness?" A short, skinny man with dark skin and short black hair bowed before the High King of Earth, drawing an annoyed hand gesture from Kasios.

"How many times do I have to tell you people? Up here, up on _The Savery_ , I'm not a King!" Kasios sidestepped over to the wall of the hallway, getting away from the middle of the path to allow a couple people behind him to go past him. "But, yes, uh...Officer...Officer…"

"Officer Hector," the man filled in, holding a brown folder in his right hand, also coming over to hug the wall, standing before the King rather stiffly.

"Hector, right! I should know that," Kasios said. "What have you got?"

"Well, Your Highness, I-I understand that you're the lead on the new imperium strain that's been showing up on Earth recently via the black market? The Tuxedo Mask investigation?"

Kasios nodded. "I'm taking charge on it, yes."

"Well, I've got something, I think," he said. "There's a salvage company that operates out of Jupiter. One of their salvage ships had an interesting story, they reported it to the authorities. Took awhile for it to filter up high enough for me to see it, but I like to keep an eye on salvage yards. You know how we're always saying that mobile imperium labs are much better than anything that has to stay stationary?"

"Yeah yeah, what...what do you have?" Kasios asked impatiently.

"About eight days ago, one of their salvage ships found an abandoned ship floating around outside of the asteroid belt. So they go inside to check it out, hull is intact and the life support systems are still running, minor power still running, but the ship interior is a dump. Just a mess. Now, what caught my eye is the report mentioned a lot of broken glass, some big boxes that looked like some kind of equipment, and a bunch of these rubber tubes that ran up into the ceiling." Hector opened up the folder.

"Abandoned imperium lab," Kasios thought aloud, hands on his hips, eyes cast down at the floor. "Where's the ship? They took it back to the yard?"

"Get this," Hector said, turning a page in the folder in his hands. "So the two scouts are still checking out the interior, and suddenly, the ship starts blowing up. Just random explosions. So they bail real quick and turn off the containment field, because they're afraid the engine might go and take them with it. The moment they do, the ship springs to life and jumps away."

Kasios's mouth fell open a tiny bit, eyebrows dropping fractionally. "Where?"

"They didn't follow. They're a salvage ship," Hector explained. "But according to the two men who checked it out, nobody was on board. So how does that happen?"

"How long were they checking the ship?" Kasios asked. "Did they at least get identification?"

"Said they were in there for maybe two secundas before the explosions started. They admitted they didn't check everywhere really good, but it was just a B-class so there aren't that many hiding places." He closed the folder. "Check this out though. They scanned the ship after they put up the field, no identification. So they looked for the engraved ID in the cockpit, filed off."

"Not so abandoned," Kasios reasoned. "Sounds to me like that lab was running, maybe immediately before the salvage ship got there." He squinted, deep in thought. "When they get caught in the field, they start destroying everything to try to make it look abandoned, then they hide. Set up some explosives to try to scare off the salvagers, then they bust out of there."

"I was thinking that," Hector agreed. "They saw enough to know it was a Notre-model, B-class. Not a ton of those out there, so I checked every starship junkyard in the galaxy to see if any of them had crushed one of them recently, last ten days." He gave a crooked little frown. "Nothing came up."

"No no, these guys...if that ship was associated with Tuxedo Mask, they'd know better than to take it to a junkyard." Kasios leaned up against the wall next to him with his back. "If they have any sense, they'd have it destroyed, that's for sure. Just crash it into an asteroid, maybe. Launch it into the sun. But never a junkyard."

"Anyway, Your Highness, at this point I'm stuck. I think that the clear stuff was getting made on that ship, but I don't know where to go with it at this point."

"Hey, great job," Kasios said, putting his right hand out and clapping it on Hector's shoulder. "Great job with all of this, picking up on that report and everything, I mean that. I'm not going to forget all this work you did."

"T-thank you, Your Highness," Hector said, nodding.

"Okay, B-class Notre ships never sold that well, so maybe we should take a look at recent purchases. See who was registered to having one recently. Check records of junkyards for them acquiring any of those ships in the last four cycles, while you're at it. Other than that, these boys are going to have to get a new lab running assuming they destroyed the old one, so we should keep an eye out on civilian purchases of starships. B and C, just in case they decide to get a bigger ship since they're making so much money. Something that can jump, since their first ship could jump, maybe that's important to them." He shrugged. "Not much else we can do other than that."

"I'll get right on that," Hector agreed. "Thank you, Your Highness,"

"Great work," Kasios repeated. "I'll make sure to recommend you for fast tracking at the end of the cycle."

"

Endymion looked over at the left side of his bed out of the corner of his eyes, over to where the very pregnant Serenity was laying, still with her nose in a little book. He sighed, saddened as she continued to take no notice of him.

Still fully-clothed, he laid back heavily on the bed, mulling over assorted words in various combinations. Nothing was obviously good or clearly useful. Finally, he figured he'd force the issue.

"Serenity, if there's something you'd like to accuse me of, then it'd be better for both of us if you just came out and did it," he said, trying to keep his voice and tone as gentle as possible.

Serenity blinked a few times, then turned her head to the right. "Accuse you of something?"

"Yes, just...come out with it," Endymion urged. "Get it off your chest, and allow me to actually defend myself. It'd be good for both of us. It might make you feel better, maybe I can put your mind at ease."

Serenity gave him a bit of an odd look. "And what do you think I might want to accuse you of?"

Endymion grunted. "S-Serenity, I'm asking you. You tell me. What is it that you think I'm doing? Because, clearly, you're not happy about something, and this isn't going to get better until you address it directly. So, put it out there, and we'll talk about it."

Serenity inhaled through her nose, still giving a blank stare, and then returned to her book.

"Oh…" Endymion swung up into a standing position at the side of the bed, violently spinning around and putting his hands on his hips. "What? Do you think I'm having an affair? Is that it? If that's it, just say it! Say you think i'm having an affair!"

Serenity ignored this angry outburst, unwilling to play his game, which only accelerated Endymion's frustration.

"Serenity." Endymion lowered his head slightly, keeping his gaze down at her. "I am _not_ having an affair. I would _never_ do that, I have absolutely no interest in things like that. We've only just gotten married, you're about to bear my child, the _last_ thing I want to do is be with another woman. You are the _only_ woman in my life. You have my word, there's no affair."

Serenity made a tiny little grunt, barely audible. "I suppose you want me to have a trophy made for you?" She rolled her eyes, putting the open book down on her stomach. "Engrave it. Prince Endymion of Earth. Didn't have an affair."

Endymion's shoulder slumped. "W-where did you even learn to speak like that?!" he snapped. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you, you know."

"Endymion. Listen. You say it's not an affair, great, wonderful." She sat up the little that she could. "But then, what is it? Because I know it's something. And I don't have the first clue about what it might be, so I'm not going to sit here and accuse you of anything. I don't want to." Her face started to harden a little bit. "But _something_ is going on, you are not acting like yourself. And if you want to make me feel better, then you need to open up to me about it. That's all there is to it."

Endymion's cheek twitched, his hand reaching up to suppress it. "Serenity, I...there's nothing to open up about! I'm a twenty-year-old Prince of Earth, newly married with a child on the way! I like to read and ride my horse! That's all that I am!" He started to pace around aimlessly. "There's nothing to tell you! A-and you sitting there, telling me that you're just _so sure_ that there has to be some big secret, it's...it's maddening, and honestly, I just wish you would...what…"

He looked around, face clouded with a nasty scowl.

"I'm a Prince!" he snapped. "I have responsibilities, I have duties, it's not all just...sitting around, and I wish you'd just...I mean, I wish I was more exciting! I wish I had some big amazing secret that would just blow your mind when you heard it, but...just, forget it."

The Prince stormed over to the bedroom door, his attempt to rationalize his behavior and put his wife at ease having developed into a nonsensical rant that meant nothing and could convey nothing of use. Serenity simply watched him go, yanking the door open and slamming it behind him. She simply went back to her book after he had departed in a huff.

"

Princess Mercury's fingers ran across the edge of the disc-shaped communicator, scrolling through various options before landing on the desired one. A lengthy random string of numbers and letters was shown in hologram form just above the disc, the one she had been searching for. She tapped the center of the disc, prompting a thin blue line to project from the disc.

She waited, nervously clenching her hands into fists and twisting around to look around her bedroom, checking for the tenth time that she was alone. Nothing but the countless priceless artifacts and fortune worth of diamonds to keep her company.

Suddenly, the blue line turned green, and crystal-clear audio began to emit from the disc.

"Mercury?"

Mercury huddled her head down towards the communicator, unreasonably paranoid even in the safe confines of her room. "Q-Queen Mars, are you alone? Do you have some time to talk?"

"Sure, I have time right now, nobody else is here," Mars replied, the green line vibrating and spiking, taking the form of a soundwave as her voice came through. "What's going on?"

"Oh, n-nothing, I'm fine, I just need to ask something." She sighed, putting her forearms down on the desk. "It's just, I haven't been able to stop thinking about what Serenity said, a little while back. When we were all chatting. Do you remember?"

"About Endymion?" Mars asked. "I remember. What about it?"

Princess Mercury dug her right index finger into her temple. "W-well, not that I'm an expert in this particular area, in fact I'm probably even below average, but was it just me, or was it fairly obvious what's going on here?"

"Oh, yeah," Mars replied quickly. "Couldn't be more obvious. Cut and dry."

"That is, to say...there's another woman?" Mercury said trepidatiously.

"Definitely. The Prince is having an affair. May as well come out and say it, it's so obvious."

Mercury, with a little sigh, put her palm on her forehead, staring down at the desk surface below her with wide eyes. "I...it's just hard for me to believe, someone like him, in the situation that he's in, would just—"

"Mercury. You know who my father is." A short pause on the line. "Trust me, there's nothing men can do, no low they can sink to, that surprises me."

Mercury gave a small nod. "Y-yes, it was just hard for me to believe it. But, I've...I can't bring myself to say it to her."

"I'm sure she's already thinking it," Mars pointed out. "She's not a three-year-old, it has to occur to her. What else can it be?"

"I-I know," Mercury said, wiping at her forehead. "But, you know her, she might not be ready to believe it. She might have doubts, probably thinks it's a possibility, but I really don't think she'd be willing to accept it based off suspicion."

"Right," Mars agreed. "I mean, I'm certainly not saying anything to her about it. Gods, could you imagine? I couldn't live with myself."

"I know!" Mercury replied, again turning around to make sure she was alone in the room. "I've honestly picked up the communicator in my room thirty times over the last half-cycle to call her, but I just figure she'll get mad at me for saying it! Even if she's thinking it herself, she's not...I can't do it. But, I was thinking, maybe if I could prove it. If I had evidence. If I wasn't just reading into the things she was telling me, then maybe I tell her. Because it doesn't sit well with me. Imagine that she's _not_ thinking of it as a possibility, and I'm sitting here knowing what's going on but I don't tell her because I'm scared." She shook her head. "Not a good friend if I do that, am I? So, I need some sort of proof."

"What are you proposing?" Mars inquired, voice suddenly dropping a bit in volume. "You want to get proof that Endymion's having an affair? How?"

Mercury cleared her throat. "I need your help, Mars. I'm only asking because Serenity is a close friend to both of us, and...well, I just think that if her husband is cheating on her, we both have a strong motivation to make sure that she knows about it."

"Of course I'll help, what do you need?" A bit of urgency in Mars's voice now.

"Well, I was wondering. Do you think it would be possible for you to read Prince Endymion?" Mercury asked, putting her mouth right up to the disc and whispering now.

"Read him?" The line went flat as Mars held silent for another brief moment. "No, he's a royal, he's had suppressors injected. State of the art ones too, I'm sure. Probably gets fresh ones every year. Even if he was right in front of me I couldn't get into his head."

"I know that," Mercury said. "I'm asking if you could...read him. Say, you got into the same room as him, and you and him were alone, for maybe ten secundas. In that scenario, could you read him?"

A longer pause this time. "How would this scenario happen? Those generals are almost always with him, especially the white-haired one. He wouldn't let me, and there'd be nothing I could do against someone trained like that."

"If I could make it happen. You and him alone, no generals. If I can make that happen, could you read him?" Mercury continued to press.

"Yes. Yes, I could do that."

"How long would it take?" Mercury asked.

"With that weakling?" Mars scoffed. "Give me a hundred beats, I'll have this woman's name and location. You get me in a room with him for four secundas, I'll know everything."

Mercury nodded. "T-thank you, so much Mars. I'll try to come up with a way to get him alone, it could take awhile but I'll get it. Just be ready." She swallowed down hard, feeling rather nervous at the clandestine nature of this act. "It...we owe it to Serenity."

"We'll get her her answers," Mars concurred. The line went dead, leaving Mercury to try to relax herself.

"

The parking dock for Class-A starships in Lecce City was a rather eerie place this late at night. It was completely dark save for the artificial sources of light, which came in the form of a handful of large lights every couple hundred paces down the line of assorted ships. It was also largely vacated, with nobody around save for a single guard drone and a security guard tucked away in a side room.

Inside one of the many ships parked there, a tall woman with blue hair that was tied into a single braid that fell just past her right shoulder, was anxiously waiting in the cockpit. Moving her legs around, fiddling with her fingers, constantly getting up to look out the windows, she certainly seemed in a hurry for something to happen. But yet, it didn't seem likely that anything would be happening in a place like this.

Finally, after what seemed like the millionth time she had looked, a humanoid figure came into view, purposefully strolling over from the left side of the line of ships.

"Finally! Gods," she grumbled, running up to the cockpit and tapping a couple buttons to lower the boarding ladder. Within beats, she heard the clanking of boots against metal, signifying someone using it.

Shortly, a head popped up from the hatch in the floor of the small ship. A head virtually identical to the head of the one currently in the ship, except that her hair was red instead of blue. Beyond that, even the hairstyle of the single braid was copied to perfection.

"About time!" she exclaimed, watching her twin pull herself up onto the ship.

"I have other responsibilities, Cyprine!" the newcomer argued, standing up and looking around as the hatch closed beneath her feet. "I had to make drop offs on Jupiter. You know how big Jupiter is?"

Cyprine rolled her eyes. "Alright, Ptilol, give it. You have it?" She held her right hand out expectantly towards her twin, motioning with her fingers.

"Of course." Ptilol reached underneath the hem of her skirt, removing a tightly-rolled up sheet of paper and snapping a tiny tie on it. She handed it to Cyprine. "That's everything. Those are the people we approach, that's what we tell them, and that's how we monitor things to ensure success. Make sure you do exactly what it says."

Cyprine grumbled, scowling just a touch as she looked the instructions over. "Absolute nonsense that we're doing this."

"Hey, you and me made a deal!" Ptilol protested. "You lost the coinflip, you have to babysit the distribution networks until we find a replacement."

"Not that!" Cyprine argued. "Well, yes, that, but...no." She pointed at the open paper in her hands. "Stealing from his dealers, that whole thing, why are we doing that? It's pathetic, is what it is."

"Orders come straight from the bossman himself," Ptilol pointed out pompously. "If you want to disobey them, it's your funeral, don't let me stop you."

"I'm not disobeying anything," Cyprine said somberly, a touch of bitterness in her voice. "But what are we doing here? Throwing pebbles at him? Putting a banana peel on the ground in front of him so he steps on it? Give me a break. Please tell me you agree."

"I...I see where you're coming from," Ptilol said, the playful malice in her tone drying up a touch. "Of course, I feel the same way, but orders are orders, and the bossman has reasons for this."

"Mimete was one of us!" Cyprine hissed through gritted teeth. "Mimete was family! I know it, you know it, we all know it. And this prick, whoever he is, Tuxedo Mask, he ratted her out and now she's dead! Say whatever you want to about her mental state, and about how she wasn't reliable anymore, she was one of us! And Tuxedo Mask signed her death warrant, and our grand plan to get back at him is to tip people off on how to steal from his dealers?!"

Ptilol gave a couple begrudging nods. "I cared for Mimete too. But we don't know everything here, bossman does. Trust me, I'd love nothing more than to hunt down Tuxedo Mask and gut him, and if the opportunity to do it ever comes up, I pray I'm the one to do it. But, clearly, bossman thinks he's worth more alive. And I think we both know why."

"I'd...I'd respect him more if he went up to her and shot her in the face," Cyprine muttered. "Just did it himself, went up to her and killed her. Maybe I wouldn't be so upset about this. But to rat her out, it's not right." She shook her head. "Gods, you don't think...bossman wants to work with him?"

"I have no idea," Ptilol replied. "But I do know that we need money. A lot of it. Fast. And the current business model is not working. So if I were you, I'd prepare for him to be willing to do just about anything, if it means achieving that goal. But, regardless of what bossman wants with Tuxedo Mask, I think that he'll eventually not be of any use to him. So, calm yourself, take a deep breath, and know that he'll eventually be made to answer for what he did to Mimete. He's already dead, he just doesn't know it yet." She glanced down at the closed hatch at her feet. "Now let me out, I've got to go make more drop offs on Mercury."

"

Prince Endymion sat on the side of the bed in the guest bedroom, a few rooms down from his own. Less ornate, fancy, and custom-tailored to Endymion's taste than his own bedroom, of course, but he felt the need to be away from Serenity right now. He hadn't yet calmed himself down after his outburst, although his target of anger was rapidly switching.

Her held his head in his hands, scowling down at the polished marble floor. Still holding a good amount of angry energy, so frustrated that he couldn't find the words to put his wife at ease, he jumped to his feet and began pacing around again.

He couldn't figure out what to say or do, he couldn't control himself, he couldn't even stop from making the situation worse. It was as if she could see right through him. He, educated from birth by the finest scholars in the galaxy, holding eight separate platinum-level distinctions in different academic subjects, as well as two crystal ones, couldn't lie to his wife.

And what's more, he _wanted_ to lie to his wife! _Needed_ to, even! That was probably even worse. His hands balled into fists, frustrated by all of this.

His pacing stopped in front of a full-length body mirror off on the right side of the room. He glanced at it, stopping right next to it, appraising the tall, thin man he saw looking back at him for the briefest of beats, feeling the intense self-loathing wash over him.

Without thinking about it, his right hand cocked back and launched into the reflective surface, shattering it with a loud crack and sending the shards to the floor with an even louder series of crashes. The large jagged shards of mirror broke into scores of tiny jagged pieces and spread out on the floor around the Prince. He just stood there as the sea of mirror chunks flowed out from the frame, then looked at his right hand knuckles to find them bleeding. Still scowling, he stormed away from the large mess he had made, back over to the bed.


	19. Paradox of Entailment

Chapter 19: Paradox of Entailment

Julius leaned up against the brick wall that towered up right behind him, the foul-smelling alleyway between two buildings providing a little cover from the outside world as he prepared himself. The sun had just peeked up over the horizon a handful of secundas ago, marking the very early morning. Another long, but highly profitable, day of slinging imperium lay in front of him, the civilians of Wayneton his customers to distribute among. Activity right now was sparse, with most people still in bed, but soon the streets would be packed with potential buyers.

He pushed away from the wall, looking down the alley out towards the street to the north. He had taken maybe two steps out towards the street when suddenly a blond man with a long ponytail, wearing a thick green vest, started approaching him. Julius slowed to a halt, immediately alerted to potential danger. This alley wasn't used by people all that often, due to how damp and rancid it was, so anyone other than him utilizing the concrete pathway was immediately suspicious to him.

As he got closer, he noticed the reflective sunglasses covering his eyes. He turned himself around to look down the other side of the alleyway, seeing nobody behind him. Figuring things couldn't get too dicey from just one person, he turned back.

"Morning," the stranger said, looking up towards the skies. "Pretty good morning so far, ain't it?"

"I got somewhere to be," Julius grumbled, hoping he could intimidate his way out of this.

"So, this is where you keep it, huh?" He looked around the alley, from wall-to-wall. "Not bad. Would take me awhile to find it, what with all the loose bricks these walls must have, plus the dumpsters. Might take all morning. And then I'd smell awful when I'm done. Might not even be able to find it. Sure would be a lot easier for me if you just pointed it out."

"I got no idea what you're talking about, now scram," Julius said darkly, moving forward to try to get around the blond.

"We could do it that way," he said mysteriously. "We could." He shuffled over a step to the right to keep in front of Julius. "You say you don't know what I'm talking about, I say that I know you're dealing the clear stuff. You deny it and try to push past me or maybe try to run the other way, I tell you to hand over whatever you're holding or else. We could do that, see where that goes. Or, you could just go get your stash, hand it over, and walk away." 

"Asshole, move it before I—"

"You do that, my friends on the roof armed with long-distance firearms wouldn't have to get involved." He pointed up above his head. "They'd sure appreciate that. Not having to waste bullets. I mean, times are hard, every little expense counts."

Julius froze at that proclamation. Slowly, after taking a couple steps away from the man, he tilted his head up, trying to find signs of anyone standing up on the roof. It was several stories up, and the angle made it difficult to be sure if anyone was actually there or not. He didn't see anyone, but he couldn't be sure, it would have been trivial for someone to hide behind the ledges up above.

"And, I mean, odds are at least decent we'd just get what we want anyway after combing through this alley," the man continued. "So honestly, the choice should be pretty easy for you."

Julius held silent, eyes darting back and forth, hands in his pockets.

"You take off the other way, you try to attack me, they get involved. This isn't a road you should be going down." The man slipped his own hands into the pockets of his vest. "You got people in your life that you care about? Children, wife, whatever?"

Julius blinked a couple times, sweat starting to bead on his forehead. "I—"

"Let me help you out here, buddy. I'm trying to help. Here's what you should do now. You go to wherever you hid your stash of imperium, you hand it over to me, and then you go home to whoever it is in your life that you value. And every few years, for the rest of your life, you're gonna look at those people. Look at their faces. And you'll think, I'm getting to do this right now, because I chose to not walk down a particular path on a particular morning."

Julius swallowed down hard, tightly grimacing, pressing his lips together.

"This is one of those paths that you shouldn't go down, man." He reached up to tug his glasses down his nose a little bit, looking at him without the benefit of the reflective surfaces hiding part of his face. "In the old days, they used to put warnings on maps. 'There be dragons here'. Nowadays, those warnings aren't there anymore. But sometimes, the dragons are."

Julius glanced upward yet again, trying to see something up on the roofs, but to no avail.

"I'm gonna start walking down the alley now. And you're going to follow me, you're going to give me your stash, and then we go our separate ways."

A short silence, nothing but the ambiance of the early morning filling the air. Just a couple of beats.

"Yes, or no?"

"

Julius threw the lid off the black rectangular dumpster, releasing a foul stench as he did so. Partially empty food containers, worn clothing, broken toys, the variety of things that could be found inside was wide. What you might not have expected, however, was to find more than sixteen thousand creds worth of refined imperium. Which is what made it just perfect as a hiding place, so long as the garbage collectors didn't come by a few days early.

"Ugh! Oh, that's foul," the stranger said, putting his hand up over his nose. Julius weathered the stench, reaching his hands down and pushing a few items to the side, digging down into the dumpster, until he uncovered a little bundle of silver cloth, taped securely to the dumpster wall. He ripped it off, then turned around and slammed it into the stranger's palm.

"Good choice," the man said, unraveling the bundle of cloth until he was able to peer inside at a stack of paper envelopes and a collection of imperium shreds. Without another word, he walked off to the north, leaving Julius standing there, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this.

"

"Despite re-branding and altering the business model slightly, sales are up four percent since acquisition, plus an additional one percent from fake purchases I drummed up. Minus re-opening costs, minus additional inventory costs, overall profit is down seven percent from the last period under previous ownership. Early projections of next period, up to approximate equilibrium with prior periods." Zoisite stared down at the small square of white lined paper in his hands. "Approximately thirty thousand creds washed so far, current period expect similar results."

Endymion leaned his head back on the headrest of the couch, arms crossed over his chest, his facial features caught somewhere between a scowl and a pout. Zoisite faltered just a bit, glancing over to his private chambers' bookshelf, before looking back at his charge.

"I-It's good news!" he insisted, putting his hands at his sides. "We renamed the store, changed the design, everything! Trust me, when businesses rebrand like this, they typically lose at least thirty percent of the previous clientele and take cycles to gain the business back! The fact that it's barely fallen off in the period immediately following transition, trust me, it's—"

Kunzite gently put his right palm out towards Zoisite from the couch to the left of the Prince. "His Majesty is...perturbed by other issues right now. Your work on running the business is exemplary, Zoisite, and I assure you the Prince is thrilled with what you've done."

Zoisite started furtively at Endymion for a moment. "T-thank you," he mumbled, sidestepping away, though unable to not notice the Prince giving Kunzite an unpleasant glare out of the corner of his eyes.

"Nephrite, anything you'd like to say?" Kunzite prompted over at the burly brown-haired guardian. As typical, the four had gathered in Zoisite's private chambers, the modest room serving well as a secure place to meet.

Nephrite shrugged. "Last five days, estimate fourteen libras moved. Estimate thirty-one point eighty-five million creds, no new arrests. Trivial loss due to weighting errors, plus some theft."

Endymion seemed to snap to life at this final word, face wrinkling as he looked over at Nephrite. "What was that? Trivial loss?"

"W-well, some of the weighing my men have been doing has been slightly imprecise, so occasionally a carat or a fraction of a carat goes unaccounted for. We're smoothing that process out so it doesn't happen in the future—"

"N-no," Endymion said, putting his hands on his knees. "I don't care about that part, the other thing you said. What was that?"

Nephrite's face rankled a bit. "In the last day, we've had a few incidents of our street dealers getting robbed in Wayneton. They get cornered, threatened, and they have to give up whatever they're holding."

"Go on," Endymion ordered, leaning forward slightly.

"It happened once last night, twice this morning. Total loss, thirty carats." Nephrite hesitated for a brief moment. "Your Highness, the men who got robbed are all solid, trust me. They just got put in bad situations and had to make a decision with their life hanging in the balance."

"I understand that," Endymion said sternly. "I'm not criticizing your men, Nephrite. Just, maybe, your decision to treat this as a footnote. Thirty carats, that's forty-five thousand creds."

"Fairly trivial," Kunzite said, entering the conversation in Nephrite's defense. "Compared to the money we're making and stand to make. A little bit of theft in this line of work has to be regarded as acceptable. Remember, we're a new distribution network, people are going to take swipes."

Endymion's neck muscles tightened up a bit. "Maybe. I can understand that," he said, voice easing up a bit. "They swipe. I'm just wondering why we're just...shrugging it off and turning the other cheek, instead of swiping back."

"Given the nature of these robberies, it's highly likely that they were conducted by people with experience," Nephrite explained. "Not just random civilians. Most likely, all three robberies were conducted by the same criminal outfit. Trying to swipe back could be difficult, and could have more serious ramifications down the road."

"Oh," Endymion replied dryly. "Difficult. Well, you've certainly convinced me. Difficult things can't possibly be worth doing. I mean, who ever thought that distributing imperium could ever be difficult?" He gave his head a violent shake. "Let's walk through this, Nephrite. We get robbed once last night, twice this morning. Four times tonight, seven times tomorrow morning, thirteen times tomorrow night, you see where I'm going? You see the problem here?"

"Um…" Nephrite, typically stoic and even-keeled, was visibly shaken by Endymion's words. "Y-Your Highness, I seriously doubt we'll see anything like that."

"And what kind of message are we sending to your men?" Endymion gave Nephrite a judgemental look. "You get robbed, have someone threaten your life, and the people who put you out there, in that position, just shrug their shoulders and pretend like it didn't happen? How are they supposed to feel about that? You think they'll be motivated to keep putting themselves out there, knowing that their boss won't stick up for them?"

"E-Endymion, maybe we should wait and make sure that the problem is actually significant enough to be worthy of this effort," Kunzite suggested frantically. "Remember, we—"

"Kunzite. Nephrite." Endymion stood to his feet. "I will not have my distribution network get bullied without consequence. I will not wait for our dealers to be targeted by every competitor and criminal out there, just looking for an easy mark that won't fight back. You two find out who did this, and you handle it. That's an order."

Before he could farm a reply from either general, he marched off towards the door to his right, departing Zoisite's private chambers in what could easily be construed as an angry huff.

The three guardians of the Crown Prince of Earth stood there, postures tightly constricted, before sharing a collection of glances between each other.

"That wasn't the reaction I was envisioning after telling him that he just made thirty-two million in five days," Zoisite said under his breath, hurriedly shuffling over towards his bed and sitting down on the edge of it.

"It has nothing to do with us," Kunzite said quietly. "He's just frustrated with other things right now. Trust me, given what we have to work with, we are all doing stellar jobs."

"Nevertheless, we can't exactly ignore an order like that, now can we?" Nephrite pointed out.

Kunzite, with a hesitant grumble, nodded. "Well, on the brightside, it's not as if I get that many opportunities to use my training in actual combat situations."

"

Kunzite sighed, pushing his hair out of his face, looking down at the pure-white undershirt splayed out on the table in front of him. He had removed his uniform, as well as the light grey undershirt he had beneath it.

"That sucker will stop a knife," Nephrite said. "Maybe not a direct stab from a strong enough guy, but most of the time, not getting through."

Kunzite reached down to the white shirt and pulled it up over his head, feeling the fabric with his palms after putting it on. "How about plasma rounds?"

"Not so much," Nephrite admitted. "You put the grey one back on though, and you should be able to survive one. Takes out a lot of the penetration, plus disperses the concussive blast. Anywho, here."

Kunzite turned around, looking to the other side of the darkened, plain room. Nephrite stood there, flanked by two tall, wide-shouldered men. One with black hair, the other with brown hair.

"This is Cassius, and this is Rufus," Nephrite explained. "Both of them served in the army previously. Both trained in firearm usage and hand-to-hand. They're both solid. If you give me a couple days, I could round up some more help, but these two were nearby."

"We'll only need four," Kunzite assured Nephrite. "I'm not looking for a bloodbath."

"About that," Nephrite said. "It's been looked into. All three thefts were carried out by the same entity, like I suspected. Crime syndicate, a family operation. Mostly, they deal in stolen vehicles. Speeders, bikes. Now, they're not exactly the Collegium, but they do operate out of a large compound about four dolichos outside of the city. Couple of acres, armed guards, camera coverage, flatland, very few trees. Probably about thirty people there at any given time."

"Then we'll just have to be precise," Kunzite replied. "You two, you're capable of being precise?" He bent down over the table to grab his grey undershirt, slipping it on over the top of the white one.

"Yes, sir," Cassius answered. Nephrite, meanwhile, went over to the western wall of one of his many safehouses. After a moment of thought, he punched his fist right into the wall, denting a large section of plaster. He slammed his hand into the section of wall again, managing to get a rectangular section of it to be pushed back a slight amount. He reached into the recess and grabbed the grooves on the sides. With a large heave, he pulled an elongated, wooden box out of the wall, letting it slam down to the concrete floor.

"We knockout cameras from a distance, get them scrambling. We keep quiet, we get inside the compound and we get to their leadership. We break some bones, maybe wreck some equipment, but we're there for what we're owed. Hundred grand, that's what we need for this to be worth the time. If we can get more, great. But we get that, we're out of there. We leave nothing behind, nothing that can trace to us. That's it. I want a minimal bodycount. One or two, I understand, it happens, but I'm not interested in leaving behind a trail of bodies."

Nephrite knocked the lid off the long box, exposing a container loaded with assorted guns, knives, gadgets, and electronics.

"Ballistics?" Rufus questioned as Nephrite lifted up a long rifle with a black scope mounted atop it and a black tube attached to the tip. "What are we, cavemen?"

"Primitive, but silent," Kunzite explained as Nephrite tossed him the large weapon. "Plus, customizable. Gear up, everyone."

"

Endymion's nude form was splayed out, face-down, on the green cushioned table, his face placed into a small hole and a small towel covering his behind. A muscular blonde woman was digging her hands into his shoulders, squeezing and kneading into his flesh.

Endymion gave a couple little groans, still scowling down at the floor, unable to truly let himself go under the ministrations of his personal masseuse, nor be really relaxed by either her or the soft, gentle, ambient music in the background.

"You seem particularly tense today, Your Highness," she commented, really pressing her strong fingers into the shoulders and neck area of the Prince.

"You've said that every session the last cycle," Endymion mumbled, closing his eyes.

"I mean even in comparison to that," she said warily. "Nervous about becoming a father?"

"Sure, let's...go with that," Endymion replied. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Understood, Your Highness." She paused for a moment. "Haven't seen Serenity in a bit. Kind of surprised, what with her being so close to giving birth, I thought she might be calling on me even more."

Endymion grumbled to himself. "It's a mystery."

She gave a little laugh. "Alright, Your Highness, you ready for me to work on the knots in your lower back? I have no idea where they all came from, you sleep on that mattress every night. And you're certainly not working in a coal mine or anything."

"Yet another mystery," Endymion said dryly. "Go ahead."

She moved down Endymion's body, pressing her elbow into a spot right by his lower spine, putting her full body weight down. Endymion grunted, gritting his teeth a bit.

"

The Bloody Spears criminal syndicate had been around, in some form or another, for about a hundred years. Born when a couple of brother, having immigrated from Jupiter, could find no legal means by which to make a living, they had begun working for a shady vehicle mechanic. Back then, the two siblings would steal an unattended or insufficiently locked-up automobile or speeder every few days and sell it for scrap. Nowadays, not only did their operation involve several vehicles a day, across half a dozen different towns and cities, they also dabbled in 'protection' for local businesses, drug smuggling, loansharking, and whatever else could prove profitable. Large and powerful enough now to intimidate local law enforcement into giving them a wide berth, as well as wealthy enough to bribe the people that needed to be, they were among the more successful family crime rings.

Truth be told, they had chosen to stay far away from imperium smuggling, as the last thing they needed was a third party group like the agency to go after them, and they had a good thing going as it was. However, when they had been approached with an opportunity to figuratively take candy from a baby, and pick off dealers of a brand new distribution ring that was unprepared to defend themselves, they couldn't turn it down.

"Me and Dietrich made the rounds through Herbouten, father," Severus said, bending over in front of his dad and placing his finger down on the thick, open book in front of him, running his finger down a couple of lines. "Collection entries are here, in line with expectations."

The old man seated at the table nodded, his expression behind his large grey mustache remaining stoic and harsh.

"And, right below that, we have the new business concerns. The end columns are empty because we haven't sold the product yet, but we should be able to get at least twenty grand for it." Severus stood back up straight.

"Get rid of it fast," Tatius grumbled. "We get caught with it, there's going to be trouble. Could be the end of us if we get caught with it. Still not sure getting involved was wise."

"It's easy money," Severus protested. "And we'll get rid of it fast, we've got people on the coast who will take it off our hands. Our source also gave us dealers who operate in all other locations we have a presence. We'll make several hundred thousand creds easily, with basically no effort and no risk."

"Taking the chance of the Galactic Imperium Agency bringing a giant mallet down on our heads is not no risk, not where I come from," Tatius insisted. "Get—"

The wooden door into the kitchen suddenly was thrown open, a short portly man wearing a red leather jacket and large sunglasses stepping inside. Both the patriarch of The Bloody Spears syndicate and the most immediate heir paused, looking over.

"Uh, we're losing our cameras," he said, pointing his thumb up over his shoulder. "The compound, the cameras are going dead."

"Dead?" Severus repeated, instinctively widening his stance in preparation for a potential threat.

"Y-yeah, it's...it's like, they're losing power, but one at a time," the man explained. "The drones, too."

"Alert the men, tell them to gear up," Severus said, charging rapidly towards the man. "Show me. The drones run on battery power, so it's not the grid. And we've still got power in here, so it's not a pulse bomb." The two younger men strode off purposefully, quickly jumping onto a staircase and taking the steps three at a time.

Within beats, they were up on the second level of the primary residence on the compound, slipping into a room just to the left of the staircase. About thirty small screens were mounted on the far wall of this room, with a massive control panel full of buttons, levers, and joysticks in front of it and a chair set up before all of it.

In the top left corner, several of the screens were black. Otherwise, all of the others displayed various live videos of various parts of the compound. Many of them outside, a few of them showing the inside of rooms and warehouses.

One of the external cameras suddenly went dead, displaying nothing but a black screen.

"Seems like it's all of the southern side cameras," the man explained, pointing up at the field of black screens.

Severus grunted. "I want a dozen men sweeping to the south. We're getting raided."

Another one of the screens went dead.

"

Kunzite lowered the scope of the long rifle from his right eye, looking out at the open flat grassy field from a handful of paces inside the thick treeline. Down on one knee to steady his aim, he slowly scanned the expanse before him, eyes on the several buildings and houses spread out in the field.

"They must have noticed by now," Kunzite said quietly. "I don't see anything yet."

"The pulse charge is ready to be deployed," Nephrite's voice buzzed into Kunzite's ear.

"Once you fire it off, get to the main residence fast," Kunzite instructed. "They'll certainly realize what's going on as soon as it blows." He lifted the rifle up to his eye again, scanning one of the distant warehouses, tapping his finger on the scope to zoom in. With a twitch of his finger, he pulled back on the trigger, firing a tiny metal disc through the air at the side of a slowly-rotating camera. It slapped against the electronic device, adhering itself to the side, getting it to slump over as its power was sapped by the projectile. "Alright, I'm getting out of here, listen for my go-ahead."

Kunzite turned to the left and marched off, staying within the treeline, keeping an eye out towards the open field of the compound. He reached into his left pocket and pulled out a black piece of clothing, pulling it up over his head, masking everything about his face outside of his eyes and mouth.

"

"Who's dumb enough to try to raid us?!" Severus shouted, watching the first-person camera feed of one of the armed men advancing to the south, trying to make out something of note through the mediocre quality of the video.

"I-I should be o-out there!" Marcus snapped, looking up over his older brother's shoulder at the screen. "I-I s-s-should be...p-protecting...for the family!"

Severus glanced over his shoulder. "Over my dead body, you should be out there." He gave a furtive glance down at his younger brother's left hand, unnaturally tiny and deformed, as well as awkwardly twisted up. "We got a dozen men out there, you think they need a bum armed stutterer?"

"I...I-I can...I can f-f-fire a gun! I can f-fight!" Marcus insisted, face twisted down into a scowl.

"Go see mom!" Severus ordered. "Make sure she's okay and knows what's going on."

Suddenly, a couple of powerful lights popped on off in the distance on the camera feed. A bit into the treeline. Soon, rapid gunfire was sounding off, from both the speaker on the screen on the wall, and off in the distance. The dozen men began to return fire over towards the treeline, launching off rapid fire plasma pulses.

"Sounds like a lot of them," Flavius said, jogging over to the nearby window out in the hallway and craning his neck to look out as far as he could into the distance.

"Just gonna be a bloodbath," Severus mused. "There's no cover out there, I don't like this."

"That's why the pawns go out into the field and the lords stay in the castle," Flavius replied, looking over at Marcus. "See what we mean?"

Severus put his hand up to his ear, pressing lightly into a small piece of equipment lodged into it. "Try to close the distance to the treeline as fast as possible, you guys are sitting ducks out in that field. Put pressure on them."

On command, the field troops began to jog across the flatland, continuing to fire plasma bursts off into the direction of the gunfire.

"Are they using ballistic weapons?" Flavius asked. "It's not plasma, that's for sure."

"How have they not hit anyone?" Severus asked. "It's twelve men in an open field with no cover!"

"Well, what the hell is going on out there?!"

The three brothers all looked over at the entrance to the surveillance room, Tatius standing there in the threshold, scowling deeply.

"I—"

At once, every single screen in the room went black. Severus winced as his earpiece gave a strong crackle before dying. The lights in the room also darkened, with the lights in the hallway soon to follow.

"What in the—" Flavius yelled, leaning over the handrails on the staircase and looking down at first floor foyer, seeing the lights out down below as well.

"Pulse," Severus spat. "They're not coming from the south, that's a distraction!"

"W-w-w-we...we gotta...g-gotta—" Marcus tried to get out, face positively pulsating with effort as he tried to get his say out. He was, however, quickly waved off by Severus.

"Go see mom!" he ordered, storming out of the surveillance room. "I'm sure they're coming from the north, whoever we have left needs to prepare to protect from that direction!"

"Call the men back!" Tatius growled, the senior member of the family beginning to get highly agitated by the out of control situation.

"We can't! Communications are out!" Severus shouted. "We'll have to do this the old fashioned way! Round everyone in the house up and tell them to prepare to defend the north!"

Everyone suddenly ducked their head down when a couple of booming explosions sounded off.

"

Nephrite, wearing a face-concealing black mask, watched the two explosions kick up dirt and splinter a few trees, up on the northern side of the treeline. He, Cassius, and Rufus were nowhere near that particular chaos, of course, instead planning an assault from the west.

"Alright, move!" Nephrite ordered, sprinting forward, a short blocky rifle in his right hand and the corner of a large sheet that was wrapped up tightly in a compartment sewed into the back of his outfit in the left. His two assistants sprinted alongside him, quickly crossing the flatland, looking up towards a warehouse a couple hundred paces away, which would provide momentary cover and a chance to gather their bearings.

"

Endymion laid back on the luxury red couch in his bedroom, head up on the armrest and pillow underneath his shoulders, eyes closed. In the afterglow of his massage, he was trying to rest and relax, but didn't care to get into his bed next to Serenity to do it. But, in perhaps a display of passive-aggressiveness, as well as immaturity, he had decided to make sure he was in his room. So, he lingered there, wanting to make his presence felt without actually engaging with her.

Serenity, looking over from the bed, gave a little sigh, staring over at his prone figure. Her fingers interlaced atop her bulging stomach, she blinked a couple times. At her left side was her closed book, waiting for her to dive back into it. But, as she thought, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

With some effort, she wormed herself off the side of the bed and slid to her feet. Despite her considerable gain in size in recent cycles, she was able to move across the room without disturbing her husband's attempt to sleep. She went up behind him, near his head, and carefully reached down. With a firm, yet non-violent pressure, she placed her fingers on Endymion's temples and began to swirl her fingers against this sensitive spot. Endymion's eyes popped open, startled for perhaps a brief moment, before just staring up into her eyes.

Serenity had a bit of a forlorn look on her face, a sort of peaceful sadness that made him feel bad for her. It was the best look she had given her in over half a cycle. It had to represent something, at the least.

"Survival training?" Serenity asked, tilting her head slightly.

Endymion, taking just a beat to gather himself, slowly nodded his head. "I know it's hard to believe. Truth be told, I don't blame you for having your doubts. But that's really, truly, seriously all it is. Just a silly, old-fashioned tradition that I had to carry on."

She stood back up straight, Endymion just resting there, tilting his head back to look at her.

"Well, honey, I was thinking I might...take you up on your offer," Serenity said vaguely, absentmindedly running her hands across her stomach.

"Hm?" Endymion gave a tiny smile, his body relaxing down into the cushions slightly. "What offer are you talking about?"

"Before you left. You said that, when you got back, you'd be able to show me how to make a fire from scratch?" Serenity reminded him.

Endymion's internal panic was, luckily, externally expressed as nothing more than a twitch of a vein on his neck and a clenching of his fists at his sides, neither of which Serenity seemed to notice.

"

"Son of a bitch, you know what?" Severus growled, holding a large, short-barreled pistol in his right hand, looking out the window of the kitchen. "You know what I think? Those explosions from the north were just a distraction too!" He looked over at a man in a suit, standing over by the door to the pantry. "Where's our communications, Seneca?! Are they back yet?!"

"Everything is still dead!" Seneca responded frantically. "These people, they've got some state of the art gear!"

Tatius slammed his fist down on the counter. "Shit! I knew getting involved in imperium was a bad idea!"

"How can this be them?" Severus countered. "We had good intel that they were a brand new group!"

"S-send m-m-me out!" Marcus managed to croak out, walking into the room from the adjacent hallway, a slight hitch in his gait. "I-if you t-t-t-think that—"

"Marcus!" Severus shouted. "For the last time, I am _not_ going to let you go out there and get yourself killed, because that's all that would happen! We are dealing with professionals! Why aren't you with mom?!"

A single man wearing a flat-brimmed hat and a brown jacket, holding a fat-barreled firearm in both hands, nearly shoved Marcus to the side as he entered the room.

"Oh, good!" Severus said. "Nero, I don't know where these people are coming from, but I have a feeling it's not from the north or the south. We need to bunker down in the house and figure out what we're actually up against! Communications are down, we need somebody to run over to the platoons we sent out and get them to come back." He pointed over at Nero. "You go south, Flavius goes north."

Nero nodded.

"Dad, go get mom," Severus continued, pulling back the small little lever on the barrel of his firearm to check it. "Take Marcus, get down into the basement. Stay down there until this is over."

Nero needed no further instruction, running over to the back door out of the house, reaching down to rip it open by the knob and then sprinting outside. Out in front of him was a concrete path cutting through the grass field, going off about fifty paces before ending. Knowing that he was quite possibly running right into a hail of gunfire, he went into a dead sprint, boots beating a path down the concrete.

He got maybe ten steps before a patch of the grass seemingly lifted upward in front of him, prompting him to skid to a sudden halt. He was just able to make out his dull grey uniform and black face mask, as well as the pistol in his hand with a slender tube attached to the mouth, before he was shot in the back of the head.

A few steps behind him, a second man had emerged from what, at first glance, seemed to be just another patch of green grass, using the element of surprise to quickly shoot him. Little more than a couple of dull little _thunks_ , and a couple of iron projectiles had lodged themselves into Nero's skull.

Meanwhile, the first man had pointed his weapon over towards the back door of the house, just as Flavius had sprinted out bearing an assault rifle in both hands. Not willing to take the chance of allowing him to start using it, he fired his silenced pistol three times at Flavius, hitting either side of his chest before blasting the third one into his forehead, just as he was coming out onto the concrete path. Flavius fell into a heap on the floor, dead before he contacted the ground.

A third figure sprung up from the ground, whisking the cleverly-designed sheet off his prone body to reveal that what seemed to be a patch of grass was in fact a camouflaged square of fabric that would fool people on a first, passive glance. He pointed his own weapon up towards the doorway, prompting both of the other two men to quickly advance on it. Although Nephrite was slightly rankled that the objective of keeping the body count to zero had already been ruined, he was happy that both of his assistants on the day had not hesitated to shoot to kill when necessary. He followed his two men, the portal into the primary residence of The Bloody Spears waiting for them.

Cassius and Rufus, pistols out and ready to be fired at the merest hint of applied pressure, stormed into the kitchen, quite fortunate to find only two men in the immediately vicinity. One of them had his back turned, pistol tucked into the waistband of his pants, looking out into the hallway on the other side of the room. The other, a man in a suit, was standing in the corner, fighting with a small tablet screen, distracted by this futile effort.

"Downstairs!" Severus shouted, looking down the hallway. "All three of you, bunker down, and—"

Cassius shot a single bullet down into the floor right by Severus's feet, getting him to rip himself around and instinctively reach for his gun. But, on finding himself staring right down the barrel of another one, he was quick to realize that such would only lead to his demise, and slowly brought his hands back out in front of him.

Rufus, meanwhile, covered Seneca, training his pistol on him, which was enough to cause him to drop his tablet in a hurry and put his hands up in the air by his head. All in all, it was a welcome sight that Nephrite had in front of him when he entered the kitchen.

"You've got two dead men right outside this door," Nephrite announced. "I'm really not interested in making it more. Truth be told, I wish it was still zero. But, ultimately, it depends on how you feel about it."

A few silent beats passed. And then, the wrinkled, wizened face of the patriarch of the family peered around the corner of the hallway, immediately recoiling at the sight of three masked men pointing guns. Slowly, Severus twisted his head to look at his father, finding the stubborn defiance of a senior citizen in his glare. And then, his focus was taken by something else, down the hall.

"M-Marcus, put the gun down!" he snapped. "Marcus, I mean it!"

"B-but—"

"You put that gun down, or we all die!" Severus said. "Drop it, now!"

You could almost hear the bitter reluctance in the dull thud of an item hitting the floor off in the hallway.

"You've got about a dozen men heading into the treeline to the north, and a dozen more doing the same to the south," Nephrite continued. "Severus, right? You're the oldest son?" Nephrite poked his gun over towards the old man's face by the hall. "That's the boss?"

Neither of them said anything, just staring down Nephrite through his black, skin tight mask.

"Well, your men are out there chasing nothing. They are, however, standing in the explosion radius of a series of powerful bombs. I push a button, they all die. Or, we can do things differently. Electronics should be coming back on any moment now, including communications. So, you get on the horn, tell them to drop their weapons and head over to the warehouse about seventy paces that way." Nephrite pointed off towards his right. "Tell them to go there and surrender."

"That was one of my brothers you killed," Severus mumbled, looking ruefully over at the back door that the three masked men had just stormed in through.

"The perils of a family business," Nephrite replied simply. "Now, what will it be?"

Severus grimaced, clearly itching to take revenge for the death of his brother. After a couple beats, however, he slowly reached up to his earpiece, tapping it and hearing it crackle to life.

"Um...everyone. Message to everyone on the compound. Repeat, everyone. Drop your weapons, report to Warehouse B, and surrender yourself. This is not a drill, leave your weapons, report to Warehouse B, and surrender yourself." He dropped his hand to his side.

"Good decision," Nephrite applauded. "Now, I have eyes on your men out there, and if they decide to disobey, we'll know. And that'll be a problem for all of us."

"Nobody's disobeying," Severus said under his breath, just barely loud enough to be heard.

"Now, we're all going to take a nice walk. Warehouse B. And once everyone is in there, all nice and accounted for, we can discuss business." Nephrite took a couple large steps to the side, gesturing over towards the back door.

"

Endymion used the sharp sword to split the modesty-sized wooden stick in half, slowly driving the blade through the branch, length-wise. Serenity watched, sitting back on the reclined chair, glancing around the expansive garden, almost as if she felt as if the two were doing something untoward that she didn't want anyone else to see.

"Okay, so...the branch needs to be dry," Endymion explained, running his fingers along the inside of the branch after fully splitting it into two pieces. He discarded one of the halves to the side, then held up the other one. "Alright, feels good to me. And this half, what we need to do is carve it out a bit. The inside, we need to make a little groove." He reached over to the ground to his left, picking up a small metal knife, and began to run the sharp end along the inside of the wood, carving a groove into it.

The two were sitting outside the palace, out in an open dirt patch of the royal garden, Serenity having found a simple chaise-style chair to sit back and witness Endymion's attempts to create a fire as men had to many thousands of years ago. It seemed rather silly, given it was a perfectly beautiful day and a fire was the last thing either of them needed, but she needed this little test if she was going to actually convince herself to believe Endymion's explanation for recent events.

"Now, the key to creating this fire is friction," Endymion explained as he dug the small pocket knife into the branch. "Two objects rubbing up against each other at high speeds, creates friction. This friction can be used to generate fire." He looked down at a clump of dried leaves in front of him on the ground. "These are kindling." He poked at a pile of twigs right next to the leaves. "And this will be where the fire gets started after the kindling catches. But, we need the spark, or else none of it does us any good."

He placed the carved branch down into the ground, pushing it slightly into the dirt with a firm shove. He then grabbed another, similar branch from behind him.

"So now we have one of the two surfaces we'll use to make friction," Endymion continued, Serenity genuinely interested as he began to shave off pieces of wood from the tip of the branch. "This branch will be the second one. I'm going to make the end of it pointy and flat. So it'll fit into the groove I just carved in the first branch."

With a few swipes of his knife, he soon had fashioned a rough spear, an end that looked threatening enough to at least pass for one in the hands of one skilled enough. He pointed the business end down into the groove on the branch, testing it by moving it back and forth within the gap.

"Now, this might take a little while," the Prince said, getting down on his knees, pressing the end of the carved branch under his right knee to keep it from moving. "But, eventually, I'll be able to create the spark that we need using just these two branches."

"I have nowhere I need to be," Serenity said, putting her arms down at her sides as Endymion pressed the tip of the stick into the groove. "Let's see it."

Endymion gave a terse nod, and then began quickly running the pointy end of the stick back and forth, arms pumping forward and backward as he worked to create the necessary friction.

"

The warehouse was largely filled by various vehicle parts, disassembled speeders and motorcycles laying around in organized stacks. A few oil and fluid stains spread out along the grey concrete floor, no doubt contributing to the significant synthetic stench of the large chamber. There were also several collections of giant red and white barrels against the walls, as well as a wide variety of equipment that a vehicle mechanic might find themselves in need of.

For the moment, however, the warehouse served a different purpose. The center portion had been cleared out, with nearly forty people crowded together tightly. They were all sitting on the floor, cross-legged, hands interlocked behind their heads. Nephrite, Cassius, and Rufus, all still wearing masks and now bearing assault rifles, were standing along the outer edge of them, keeping a vigilant watch for any potential wrongdoing.

Kunzite entered the warehouse from the front entrance, sliding the steel door shut behind him, drawing the attention of all forty individuals within. He looked over the scene, surmising how controlled the situation was.

"You going to tell us what this is about?" An elderly woman in the middle of the sea of prisoners finally said, twisting her head around to look at the armed Nephrite.

"I think we both know the answer to that," Nephrite replied. "Who are you?"

"For your purposes, I'm the one in charge," she replied. "The name's Maxima. Tatius is my husband. But it's not in his nature to negotiate with people who point guns at him, no matter what."

The old man who served as the head of The Bloody Spears gave an audible grumble.

"So, if you want something, it's me you'll be asking," Maxima finished.

"You stole something from us," Kunzite said, coming up to the outer edge of the circle of prisoners and stopping. "Your syndicate took something that belonged to us. The only fair way to respond to that in my book is to take something that belongs to you."

"You've already taken one of my sons," Maxima pointed out gloomily. "Of course, nothing I'm not used to. My firstborn was a girl. Fell off the roof of a three-story building, cracked her head open. I had a son who ran away, tried to make a fortune working as a soldier of fortune in the civil war on Saturn. Had half his head blown off by a sniper."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," Kunzite said briskly. "But this is business. And it's bad business to let someone rob you without a powerful response."

"I'll be honest with you," Nephrite chimed in. "Our plan was to just round everyone up and start breaking bones until we got what we wanted. But, given that we've already got two corpses, which I think makes the degree of our seriousness evident, we can just skip to the part where you start handing over something to make this raid worth our time."

Maxima sighed. "A deal is always better than a massacre. Can I stand up?"

Kunzite nodded, gesturing for her to rise. She slowly did, shakily getting to her feet.

"Let my husband get up too. Put him in a chair. It's bad for his knees to be sitting on the floor at his age." She looked down to her right. "Marcus, too. He's got the palsy, sitting like this chokes the blood flow into his legs. You let them go sit in chairs, and I'll lead one of you back to the house. We're not stupid enough to keep the imperium on the compound, of course, but I'll make you whole."

Kunzite and Nephrite glanced over at each other for a brief moment. Kunzite nodded.

"Alright, Maxima, you're coming with me," Kunzite said, waving her over. "I've got a communication channel open with my buddies here, meaning they can hear everything I say. If, for any reason, our line of communication were to be cut off, or I stop giving status updates, the body count starts going up." He pointed over at Rufus. "Let the old man and the cripple sit on chairs, but keep them together and make sure they stay where you put them."

Maxima delicately stepped through the tightly-compacted group of people sitting on the floor.

He then looked over to Cassius. "You get two volunteers and lead them around the warehouse. Get them stripping the power modules out of the engine blocks, I see at least fifteen of them in here. Imperium converters too." He watched as Maxima got out of the prisoner circle. "By the time we're done here, you'll have learned a valuable lesson about trifling with us."

"

Endymion was starting to sweat noticeably as he violently rubbed the two pieces of wood together, arms churning. The continued friction was causing distinct wisps of smoke to plume up from the makeshift firestarter.

Serenity just watched, eyes on the dark smoke rise up through the air, nose twitching slightly as she detected the distinct odor from the branches.

"Almost there!" Endymion grunted, giving his head a little shake, sending flecks of sweat in either direction.

"Your Highness, what are you doing?"

Serenity looked up, twisting her head around, finding a short, brown-haired woman standing there carrying a basket in her right hand and a short shovel in the other. She had a befuddled expression, eyes on the Prince cranking the stick back and forth.

"He's starting a fire!" Serenity explained, turning back to watch the building smoke plumes.

The woman opened her mouth to say something, but after a couple of beats, simply closed her mouth and turned around to walk off.

"

Marcus, sitting by a long steel counter against the eastern wall of the warehouse, in a wheeled spinning chair next to his father, stared over at Rufus. The masked man was keeping close tabs on both him and his father, leaving them little opportunity to do anything to try to turn the situation in their favor. Meanwhile, Cassius was off on the other side of the warehouse, pointing his plasma rifle at two of The Bloody Spears underlings, as they rifled through stacks of speeder engine blocks, unscrewing and removing various small components that provided a good weight-to-value ratio. Nephrite continued to babysit the thirty prisoners still sitting in the circle, his rapid-fire plasma rifle more than enough to encourage them all to stay in line.

The crippled son of the syndicate's patriarch stared down Rufus, eyes on the large firearm in his hands. "D-did you...d-did you s-s-s-shoot my brother?" he asked, trying to sound as intimidating as he could given his chronic stutter.

"No clue," Rufus growled back. "You people all look the same to me."

Marcus pushed a powerful breath out of his nostrils, then glanced down underneath the counter to his left at a brown cardboard package.

Suddenly, the front door to the warehouse slammed open, Maxima entering with Kunzite right behind him. Kunzite had a brown burlap sack slung over his shoulders.

"Be grateful to this woman right here," Kunzite said, dropping his shoulder and letting the bag strap fall into his hand. He walked over to the pile of speeder components, dropping the burlap to the floor. "Her cooperation with me has ensured all of you live."

The two prisoners who had been pressed into farming the valuable engine pieces, reading the gestures of Cassius, opened up the mouth of the bag and began placing the modules and converters inside.

"Now we'll be getting out of here," Kunzite stated, jerking his head towards the main door, getting Rufus to start slowly backing over towards the exit while keeping his firearm at the ready. Nephrite began to do the same. "If you're feeling really sore about all this, you _can_ try to chase us, I suppose. But it's better for all of you if you just accept your losses today as a tough lesson and move on. You don't want us to come back."

After the bag was loaded to capacity, Kunzite quickly reached down to jerk it up over his shoulder. He and Cassius slowly moved towards the front door as well, keeping weapons trained on the thirty-ish seated prisoners.

"We won't chase," Maxima assured him. "I can only assume you've got the whole compound rigged to blow if we do."

Kunzite brought the second strap of the sack onto his other shoulder to balance the load. "And I can only assume you've learned what happens when you rob us?"

"BASTARDS!"

All four masked men turned over to the right side of the chamber, where the temporarily-ignored Marcus was now holding a large plasma rifle, cardboard box opened at his feet. With his one good hand holding the grip and the butt end roughly pressed into his chest, he was reaching forward with his shrunken, twisted hand, trying to grab the lever on the barrel and yank it back. The appendage, however, was entirely inadequate for such, and took a few beats just to reach forward enough to grab it.

"NO!"

Several of the prisoners yelled in an unsynchronized, cacophonous chorus as the crippled son of the family tried to prime the weapon that he was in no condition to use. In truth, given his handicap, he was unlikely to actually be able to fire an accurate shot if given a hundred chances. But Nephrite, operating on muscle memory, fired off three plasma bolts at Marcus's chest, catching him full in the middle and burning a hole right through his center.

However, this was enough to get his disabled arm to yank back on the lever, successfully priming the weapon, and as his body spun to his right from the impact of the bolts, his hand clenched down on the trigger. Several white projectiles launched from the tip of the barrel, wildly flying upward.

Several of the wild shots struck a row of barrels up on a catwalk near the ceiling of the warehouse. The physical force of the strikes were enough to penetrate the steel, blowing large holes in the containers, causing a red liquid to spill out. Furthermore, the heated plasma also served to ignite the fluid as it poured out. The several hundred congiis of liquid erupted in a massive flood of fire, rapidly expanding as it fell down to the ground floor of the warehouse.

"Aw, shit," Nephrite managed to mutter, before the four masked men spun around and sprinted out of the front entrance, getting outside just as the wave of flame crashed down on the circle of sitting prisoners.

The quartet booted it across the grassy flatland, all of them able to feel the tremendous heat on their backs as the warehouse was consumed by an angry fire. Only after they got ten kalamos away did they turn around, able to watch as the large grey structure began to emit copious amounts of smoke.

"God damnit!" Kunzite huffed, unable to hide the shock and concern from his face as he watched the outer walls of the building began to warp and crumble.

"We need to get out of here!" Cassius shouted.

"Fire crews will probably come in from the west!" Nephrite reasoned. "East!" The Earth general took off in the indicated direction, quickly followed by the other three, as the licking flames from within the warehouse began to consume the entire structure, massive clouds of smog rising into the air.

"

Endymion dumped the charred black wood particles that had built up at the end of the grooved branch from all of his rubbing on the pile of dried leaves. He bent down and began gently blowing on the smoking little bundle of debris.

"Just keep the air flowing," he said as the black wood particles began to glow red, a tiny spark bundled up within the leaves. And then, suddenly, the entire pile ignited into a blooming flame.

"Ah!" Serenity yelped, jumping a bit as the leaves suddenly lit in a heated flame. Endymion quickly piled the twigs on top of the burgeoning fire, stoking it to continue growing.

"There it is!" Endymion said, relieved as the twigs began to catch fire as well. "So at this point, you would just get progressively bigger sticks and keep stacking them as the fire grows, and you'd eventually have a full-blown bonfire."

"That's pretty cool, actually," Serenity marveled as the little flame grew as it found more fuel to build itself.

"That's not the only way to make a fire from scratch," Endymion said, panting a bit as he got back to his feet. He bent over to brush off his knees of dirt. "But that's my favorite."

Serenity nodded, and then gave a sad little frown. "I...I'm sorry," she muttered.

"Hm?" Endymion turned to look over at his wife.

"I'm sorry about...you know, lately," she said, looking down at her knees, still frowning. "It was just hard to swallow, and I just couldn't quite bring myself to believe it, but, well, I guess there are just some things I don't understand. I'm sorry I've been difficult lately."

Endymion began to kick dirt over the small fire, splashing the brown soil over it to extinguish it. After piling a sufficient amount on top of the flames, he stomped his foot down on top of it, making sure there was no smouldering ember remaining to possibly spark to life later.

"I understand," Endymion said, stepping over next to her and reaching his right hand down towards her. She took it, letting him pull her into a standing position. "I get it, trust me."

She leaned over towards Endymion, going up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the chin. "Alright. Early dinner?"

The young couple quickly crossed over the couple steps to get off the dirt patch and onto the concrete path, the only traces of their little outdoor project a few traces of smoke trailing up into the skies.

"

Kunzite and Nephrite looked up through the tree canopy behind them, able to make out a massive pillar of smoke between branches. Behind them, Cassius and Rufus had their hands on their knees, panting profusely, as the long distance sprinting they had just engaged in to get far away from the burning warehouse had taken quite a bit of the energy out of them.

"Literally. Literally ten beats away from a perfect, clean getaway," Nephrite muttered darkly.

"Well, we still have that," Kunzite reasoned. "No evidence that we were there, nothing that can lead back to us. It'll just look like a rival gang hit, or maybe a fluke accident." He scowled. "Not what we needed, though."

Kunzite reached down to his belt, pulling out a small disc and glancing at it. It was vibrating in his fingers.

"You two," Kunzite announced, drawing the attention of Cassius and Rufus. "Stay here and catch your breath, me and Nephrite are going to run ahead and take this call."

The two of them nodded, grateful for any excuse to stop running for a bit. The two generals jogged up ahead, getting a healthy distance away, moving between trees before Kunzite stopped.

"It's the Prince," Kunzite said, tapping the center of the disc, then spinning the outer edge counter-clockwise a bit before lifting it up to his ear. "Yes?"

"Hey, Kunzite, how's it going?"

"Umm…" Kunzite glanced up behind him at the billowing smoke pillar, just barely able to make it out between the leaves of the branches high above his head.

"L-look, buddy," Endymion suddenly said without getting a response.

"

"I wanted to apologize to you," Endymion said, standing up on the balcony right outside his bedroom, looking through the glass doors back into his room, where Serenity was entering the bathing chamber. "For this morning. I'll apologize to Nephrite and Zoisite as well, when I get the chance, I...you guys are doing fantastic. Really, all of you. Thank you so much."

"W-well, Nephrite's actually standing right here with me," Kunzite's voice hummed through the disc-shaped communicator in Endymion's right hand.

"Oh, well then, Nephrite, great work," Endymion said, an easy smile on his face as he walked over to the handrail going around the outer edge of the balcony. "You're really doing fantastic. Oh, and...the thing we talked about this morning? The thing I told you to handle? Just forget it."

"

Kunzite and Nephrite both blinked blankly a few times, staring wide-eyed at the small disc in Kunzite's hand.

"Did you guys catch that? You guys hear me?"

"W-what?" Kunzite asked. "What was that?"

"I had a chance to calm down, and you guys...you were right, it's not a big deal. Don't worry about it, just let it go," Endymion reiterated. "Sorry I made such a big deal about it. You guys are doing amazing, let's not make a big deal out of a minor thing."

Kunzite slowly twisted his head back around again, again bearing witness to the massive smoke cloud rising up in the atmosphere. He then looked down to Nephrite, who could only return his wide-eyed stare.

"You there?" Endymion asked.

"We...we need to meet. Soon," Kunzite said. He tapped the center of the disc and dropped it back to his belt. "Let's get out of here," he gasped.


	20. The Priceless Benefits of Fear

Chapter 20: The Priceless Benefits of Fear

"So, when I said handle it, how did you two interpret that?" Endymion asked, arms crossed over his chest, giving both of his biggest and strongest generals a reproachful look, which both served to convey the Prince's disapproval and surprise.

The two generals were seated on the couch in Nephrite's private chambers, somehow managing to resemble school children being called into the academy director's office for reprimanding after getting into a fistfight. Nephrite put his palms out towards the Prince.

"Y-Your Highness, I'd like to second Kunzite's statement on this being extremely unlucky, and entirely the fault of one particularly stupid member of the syndicate that we raided," Nephrite said cautiously.

Endymion wiped his hand across his forehead. "Because, just for future reference, all I was looking for was to take back what we were owed, a little intimidation, teach them a lesson, maybe one or two bodies if necessary." He shook his head, dropping his hands to his hips. "That's it! Gods, an entire gang of corpses?! Forty dead bodies?!"

"We didn't kill them," Kunzite said, trying to keep his voice even and without emotion.

"I understand that," Endymion replied. "But you guys, you're the best the galaxy has to offer! There's nobody in this solar system I'd take over you two if I needed a field mission done properly! How did this happen?!"

"We were leaving," Kunzite muttered darkly. "We had everyone on the compound rounded up, we had enough money and goods to cover what was stolen ten times over, another ten beats and we would have been gone. Three or four secundas, we'd be off their property, disappeared into the trees, mission success, message sent. Two corpses, that's it, almost a perfect operation."

Kunzite glanced over at his brown-haired counterpart.

"One of them pulled a gun," Nephrite continued. "A cripple, had some...arm deformity and stutter, I think. We had let him sit away from the main group of captives so he could be on a chair, his condition made it unhealthy for him to sit on the floor. So we took our eyes off him for a second, and he was sitting right next to a hidden rifle."

"How can you fire a rifle with a deformed arm?" Endymion questioned.

"Not well," Nephrite admitted. "He had the jump on us, but he yelled at us while he was trying to prime it. Not the sharpest guy around, I guess. I shot him, put him down, but he had managed to ready the rifle." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, looking down at the carpet. "Fired wildly as he was dying. Shot up a bunch of barrels of...some kind of fluid."

"Based off the reaction, probably refined turbo fluid," Kunzite muttered.

Nephrite nodded grimly. "It caught fire, and...it wasn't even an explosion. The fire just expanded out, in all directions. So fast, so hot too." He shook his head. "Consumed the whole warehouse. We only got out because we were right by the door. But that fireball crashed down right on top of where we had all the captives. Didn't have a chance, none of them."

Endymion blinked a couple times, then shrugged, giving a long, exhaling sigh. "Well, when you describe it all like that, you do seem to have a little bit of an act of God on your hands," he admitted. "I don't know which God, but I suppose there's not much accounting for something like that."

The three young men kept their mouths closed for a few moments, all of them pondering the unintentional massacre.

"That's messed up, though," Endymion said, shaking his head. "Forty people. I mean, I guess they weren't exactly model citizens, but, wow." He shuffled over to the left armrest of the couch and sat down on it, perching himself atop the furniture. "You're sure they're all dead?"

"Nobody in that warehouse could have survived," Kunzite assured the Prince. "Assuming that was turbo fluid, that fire was burning extremely hot. And we had everyone in the compound rounded up in there. Possibly, some members of the syndicate who were off-site at that time are still out there, but all of their main leadership is gone."

"Their teeth probably popped," Nephrite added, drawing a curious look from Endymion. "When it gets hot enough, teeth explode." He put his right hand up by his mouth in a fist, and then sprung his fingers out in a quick little motion. "Makes corpse identification harder."

"And there were the two that we shot just outside the primary residence," Kunzite recalled. "Everyone on that compound was dead when we left, and there was nothing we left behind that could implicate us." Kunzite leaned back against the couch's backrest. "And, for what it's worth, we did make off with about half a million worth of money and goods."

Endymion nodded, putting his hand up to his bottom lip. "Interesting." His face condensed a bit as his eyebrows squished together, pondering this new information.

"I-if I may, Your Highness, did things improve today?" Kunzite asked suddenly. "The situation with you and Serenity?"

Endymion gave a tiny smile, face relaxing. "That obvious?" He got back to his feet. "She's come around, and I was able to show off my 'survival skills', so I think we're fine now."

"What does that mean?" Kunzite questioned as Nephrite swung up off the couch as well. "Survival skills?"

"I started a fire," Endymion explained. "You know, with sticks? Friction?"

Kunzite's forehead wrinkled. "You actually did that?"

"Hey, don't sound so surprised," Endymion said coolly. "I read about it once. Wasn't that hard actually, didn't see the big deal about it.'

Kunzite gave a modestly-impressed nod. "Good job. So, she's convinced?"

Endymion suddenly looked over at Nephrite. "Nephrite, I think it's time to expand our operation."

The brown-haired general could only offer a quizzical look at this statement. "How do you mean?"

"Right now, we're just slicing off the edges, snatching the crumbs that the other distribution networks leave behind. We need to start selling in more prime locations, move our dealers into places with more people." Endymion rubbed his hands together in front of him. "Go pull up a map of any major city we have a significant presence in, there are tons of high-traffic areas that we're not even touching. We need to hire more dealers, too. Our customers, some of them must be interested, and they're clearly willing to accept some risk."

"Your Highness, we've talked about this," Kunzite reminded his charge, still remaining seated on the left cushion of the couch. "It's not our territory, if we try to sell in places where others are already selling, it'll be trouble, and hiring our customers—"

"Things have changed," Endymion said, putting his closed fist up beneath his chin. "T-think about it, think about it, what just happened earlier today with The Bloody Spears, how is it going to look?"

Kunzite blinked a couple times. "Rival gang hit?"

"Which rival gang? How many organized crime syndicates could even have done that? Storm an armed and guarded compound, round up forty people, burn them all alive, make off with all the valuables you could find, leave behind no evidence of who you are...it definitely wasn't a bunch of teenaged ruffians. The syndicates that could do something like that, why would they?" Endymion went back around behind the couch, placing his hands down on the backrest and leaning forward on the large chair, eyes wide and down towards the floor, deep in thought. "Word is going to get out. These guys tried to rob Tuxedo Mask, and Tuxedo Mask put his foot down. Forty corpses over thirty carats of imperium. An entire crime syndicate, scorched off the face of the Earth, because of some minor theft. That's how it looks. Not what we intended, but we can use it."

"You're theorizing that people are afraid of us?" Kunzite asked slowly. "That, if we intrude on the territory of other distributors, they won't retaliate because of what they think we did to The Bloody Spears?"

"Nobody will steal from us, either," Endymion added. "They've seen what we do to people who steal from us. Or at least, they think they have. This is an opportunity, we should use it." He looked up at Nephrite. "Think about every one of our current dealers having three or four dealers underneath them, working for them, expanding our net multiple times over. All of them kept in line by fear, it's perfect."

"That…" Kunzite trailed off for a second, thinking. "...actually might have some merit to it, admittedly. But, Your Highness, even if the theory is sound, there's still risk involved in expanding our distribution. Our network has only been in operation for a little more than a cycle now, we're making a lot of money and doing very well, do we really need to press now?"

"We might not get another chance like this," Endymion said firmly. "We need to strike, now. You said it yourself, Kunzite, we need to make money faster. We wait, people forget about this, and we might be stuck picking at leftovers forever."

Nephrite paused for a brief beat, and then jerkily nodded his head. "I'll get on that, then. There are certainly some members of my network that I trust with recruiting."

Endymion began to pace over towards the door to the room. "I think we're done here. Let's just try to put this behind us, and make the best of it."

As Endymion departed, however, Kunzite just looked down at the floor beneath his feet, sighing silently so that the Prince wouldn't notice.

"

Kasios pulled the circular silver disc from his pocket, leaning up against the wall right by the door to Endymion's bedroom. He held it up in front of his mouth, using his right thumb to press into the center of the device. A hologram of a soundwave popped up.

"Hey, Naxos, what's up?" Kasios said tersely, unable to keep a little hostility from his voice as he hailed his fellow council member.

"Twenty-two arrests total now related to the Tuxedo Mask case," Naxos immediately said. "Another Class E."

"I know!" Kasios said. "I'm taking the lead on the investigation, of course I know, I'm watching everything, constantly! In fact, you're a little behind, I knew about that arrest this morning."

"I'm just letting you know, people are getting antsy. Patience is thin. The other council members, they're tired of hearing about these dealers basically telling the local interrogators to kiss their ass, knowing that they have nothing to be scared of. This distribution network, it's been around for about two cycles now, and we've got nothing but some scraps."

Kasios gave an annoyed huff. "Well, this is how it is sometimes, you know that! You don't just wave a magic wand and get a bunch of imperium dealers to show up in front of you in chains, it takes time. These people, they know what they're doing."

"Kasios, I understand that. It's not about what I think, though. I'm not calling to advocate for my position, or something like that. This is a courtesy call, nobody else knows I'm doing this. You're running out of time before either you change the Earth laws, or the agency involves themselves directly. Right now, all the council sees is a parade of dealers being herded in and out of prison so quickly they barely have time to get their fingerprints on file. And that lead you had on maybe finding the ship they were using as a lab? Looks like a total dead end."

"Thank you for your interest in my investigation," Kasios said, agitation evident in his voice. "Believe me, I'm aware of the pressure. But I've already said it, if I change the laws, if he's got any sense, he'll disappear. That should be a last ditch effort." He looked up at the door next to him. "Now I actually have to take care of something right now, so if that's all you wanted to say…"

Naxos sighed, his resigned little breath coming through loud and clear on the little communicator. "Kasios, it's been estimated that at _least_ a couple libras worth of this clear stuff is being sold every day on Earth. It's probably more. We have no idea how much of this stuff exists, but that number is certainly going down every day. E-even if you're right, and he just ramps down his operation when the laws get changed, at least that buys us more time. Just think about doing it before you're forced to, it'll look better."

"Thank you, Naxos. I'll be back on _The Savery_ in a few days," Kasios said, tapping the center of the disc and pocketing it. Clearing his throat and rubbing at his temples, he gathered himself. "At least I finally got him to stop with that Highness nonsense," he grumbled.

He wheeled around and opened the door, striding into the room. Endymion and the very-pregnant Serenity were on the bed, Endymion sitting on the edge and Serenity laying down in the middle. A tall thin man with a bald head, wearing a white form-fitting jumpsuit, was standing next to Endymion, a thin circular tube in his right hand.

"Alright, kids, we're doing this?" Kasios asked, immediately plastering a smile onto his face. "You guys excited?"

"Excited doesn't even cover it," Serenity said, rubbing at her belly.

"Your Highness," the bald man said, bowing over towards the High King. "We'll do the scan in a moment, I'm just going to inject these new suppressors into the Prince first. Whenever he's ready."

Endymion had his hands in his lap, tightly squeezing them together, grimacing.

"Oh, give me a break," Kasios said, a bit of levity in his voice nonetheless. "Come on, what are you waiting for, let's go! Don't tell me…"

Endymion's face went a little red. "It's not like phobias just expire when you turn twenty or something," he protested, looking over at the tube in the man's hand.

"Son, you need these new suppressors, trust me," Kasios urged. "It's just a needle."

"Oh, _just_ a needle," Endymion repeated dryly. "That helps so much, I feel so much better. The fact that it's a needle is the whole point!" He looked up at the doctor. "Dennis, can I take a belt of liquor first, maybe?" 

"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty," Dennis answered.

Endymion gave a rattled sigh, then turned his body slightly away from Dennis, looking over towards Serenity. "Alright. Go ahead."

Dennis went over behind the Crown Prince, pressing the edge of the tube to the back of Endymion's neck. Endymion tensed up, swallowing down hard, closing his eyes. A beat later, with a little moan, a tiny needle had been popped out from the end of the tube, penetrating Endymion's skin on the back of his neck and injecting a quick shot of a liquid. Endymion winced down hard as the royal doctor backed away.

"A new mystic showed up about six or seven days ago," Kasios explained. "Never seen anything like this one, her powers are beyond even the understanding of the most powerful mystics on Mars. Managed to cause a riot in Zanzibal, you heard?"

Endymion nodded. "A little bit. They said she can take control of a person's mind. Dictate their actions and thoughts. Make them do whatever she wants them to do." He blanched. "Terrifying."

"Like, mind control?" Serenity asked, the smile fading a bit from her face.

"We asked Mars about it, they say that they've never seen anything like it before," Kasios said darkly. "I mostly believe them. I feel like if they had mystics who were able to control people's actions, we would have heard about it by now. Had every scientist and doctor on the planet working on a way to suppress powers of that magnitude, we needed a way to quickly inoculate critical people." He looked over at Serenity. "You'll get yours right after you give birth. It seems like there's some sort of limit to her powers, or else I don't know why she wouldn't already be brainwashing every rich person and royal on the planet." He cleared his throat. "Alright, enough about that, let's do this."

Dennis reached down into a brown briefcase at his feet, pulling out a square piece of glass with a metal border around it. "Alright, Your Highness, just hold this over your stomach. Right on top of the navel is fine."

Serenity took the device and placed it right near her belly button, the glass just barely above the skin. "Like this?" she asked.

"That should be good," Dennis answered, grabbing a tablet from the suitcase and activating it. "I'm assuming you all want to know?"

"Definitely," Endymion said, standing up and rubbing at the back of his neck. "I want to know."

"Me too," Serenity replied, the doctor squinting down at the screen in his hands.

"Your Highness, move it down just a tiny bit."

Serenity did as she was told, placing the glass pane downward ever-so-slightly.

Dennis nodded. "Alright." He turned the screen off, reaching over towards Serenity, taking the square out of her hands. "Prince Endymion, Princess Serenity...you're having a girl."

Serenity gave a puffing little exhale, her body immediately slacking a bit against the blanket beneath her.

"A girl," Endymion repeated, gently leaning up over his wife and placing his palm on her stomach. "A girl." He looked up at Serenity's face. "You know, I really like that. That feels right."

Serenity nodded, wiping a bit underneath her eyes. "Yeah, me too."

"I'm getting a granddaughter!" Kasios said. "Wow, that's...I'm going to have fun with this, I'll tell you that."

"Well, I suppose the name becomes a simple matter," Endymion commented, standing back up straight. "No need for a debate or decision."

"So, about that," Kasios started. "How are we going to make that work?" He pointed over at Serenity. "I just mean, we've got you, Serenity, and then we're going to have your daughter, Serenity? Doesn't that get confusing? Especially when she gets a little older, won't that be a problem?"

Serenity swallowed down hard, quickly disposing of a couple of small tears with her fingers. "W-when I was little. Before I turned ten, I had a nickname in the palace. It was sometimes a little strange, having the same name as my mother, and then sometimes my grandmother would be there, so...before I turned ten, people would call me 'Chibiusa'."

"Small bunny?" Kasios said. "I have the translation right? That's from the old tongue."

"Yeah," Serenity said, nodding. "Everyone called me that. My mom, guards, midwives, servants, maids. Until I turned ten. So, we could just do that?"

"Small bunny." Endymion cocked his head slightly. "Chibiusa. I could do that."

"Chibiusa, then," Kasios agreed. "I like it. Dennis, when's our due date?"

"I would say three-quarters of a cycle, Your Highness," the royal doctor answered quickly.

"How sure are you that she'll be out sometime in the next cycle?" Kasios asked.

"Well, we can effectively guarantee that if we're willing to do an externally-assisted birth," Dennis said. "I am quite confident that she'll be ready to come out in twenty days, it's just a matter of if she actually does or not. Should she be a little stubborn, at that point we can just give her a little push."

"If it comes to that," Kasios said quietly. "If that ends up being the case, I think we'll probably need that push."

"Why a cycle?" Serenity asked, putting her arms down at her sides.

"Well, I got a letter from Neptune earlier today," Kasios explained, reaching into his inside jacket pocket and pulling out a folded piece of blue paper with white fringe. "Queen Neptune hand wrote it herself, or so I'm to believe. Sent it the old fashioned way too."

"That's an interesting way to propose a new trade agreement," Endymion muttered.

"No, actually. We've been invited," Kasios explained. "The finest writers, actors, and artists on Neptune, which she reminds us consist of the best in the galaxy on all three counts, have come together over the last year to put together a new opera. The most expensive opera ever constructed to date, and the royal family of Earth is invited to watch the grand premiere on Neptune."

"How sure are you it's not just a ploy to poison all of us?" Endymion asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed and crossing his right leg over his left.

Kasios gave a tiny smirk. "Queen Neptune's really not that bad, I promise. She can be cold and snobbish, but trust me, she's not our enemy. And I've been told that the other royal families of the galaxy have all been invited, so we really should be there as well. The premiere is in a cycle-and-a-half, so I'd like the Princess to have given birth and be in good enough condition to travel to Neptune by then."

"Opera?" Serenity's face wrinkled. "Those never make any sense. Is this one supposed to be so amazing because it actually makes sense?"

Endymion chuckled a bit. "You're going. It's culture, it'll be good for you."

"It has been a long time since I've seen Queen Neptune," Serenity mused. "In fact, last time I saw her, she was still Princess Neptune. So that would be nice, at the least."

"So, if 'Chibiusa' isn't out of the cave in a cycle, I'd like to give her a little nudge out," Kasios said. "Should be perfectly safe, most births these days have outside assistance. Obviously, I would only ask it if she's definitely ready to come out, but assuming that, I'd like to have you able to travel for this." He turned towards the door. "Now, I have to go put out an order for a thousand different baby tiaras."

"

Cyprine violently shoved a few of the deep-fried potatoes into her mouth, obnoxiously chewing the small mouthful of food, furtively glancing around the restaurant every few beats.

The large, dimmed room was buzzing with assorted quiet conversation, the various round tables of varying sizes playing host to assorted individuals. All different sorts of food and drink were present on the tablecloth-covered surfaces. A soft, quiet, stringed tune was lilting through the air, meant to relax, but proving entirely unsuccessful on the blue-haired woman, who was clearly agitated and upset.

"You go to a fancy restaurant and you order _that_?" Ptilol said mockingly, coming up behind her sister and looking down at her plate. "What, they have a kids menu?"

"I'm stressed!" Cyprine retorted. "I need comfort food!"

"Alright, alright." Ptilol sat down at the chair on the other side of the table, the surface small enough to allow easy conversation. "What's going on?"

"I'm sure you already know!" Cyprine hissed. "Could not have backfired more! We've basically helped him! In fact, Tuxedo Mask should be _paying_ us after what we did for him!"

"Keep your voice down!" Ptilol whispered harshly. "Just walk me through it. I know The Bloody Spears got raided and basically everyone's dead, that's all I know."

"Well, I'm sure you can fill in the gaps," Cyprine muttered. "The Spears robbed a few dealers that had the clear stuff. Like, thirty carats, less than fifty grand worth. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, I tipped them off on the areas where the dealers operated, and they did exactly what we wanted. And then...Tuxedo Mask, or whoever the hell this is, found out who robbed him, had a crew raid the compound they operated out of, rounded everyone up into one of their warehouses, stole whatever they could get their hands on, and then _burned the warehouse to the ground with everyone still inside!_ "

Ptilol nodded. "I figured as much."

"So now, he's hiring more dealers!" Cyprine leaned forward, chin almost touching her plate of food. "And—"

"Welcome to The Glass Onion!"

The two twins practically started right out of their chairs, looking over to find a blonde waitress standing right next to Ptilol, beaming down at the redhead.

"Wow, I love the hair coordination you two have going on!" she said cheerfully. "Really cool. So, can I get anything started for you?"

"U-uh, no," Ptilol responded. "I'm fine, thank you."

"No, she'll be having the special," Cyprine quickly interjected. "With soup."

"Um, no, I won't," Ptilol said. "I'm not having anything."

"She most certainly is," Cyprine continued to press. "In fact, she's very interested in having the starter platter, hold the spice on the buffalo meat."

"She's very mistaken right now, I'm not having any platter, starter or otherwise," Ptilol said through gritted teeth.

"I'll just...give you some time to sort this out," the waitress said, slowly backing away, then spinning around and beating a hasty retreat after a few steps.

"You need to order something," Cyprine hissed across the table.

"I'm not hungry," Ptilol insisted stubbornly.

"This plays better if you order something!" Cyprine scooped another fried potato into her mouth. "You're in a restaurant, it's weird to go into a restaurant and not order anything. Just get a drink, at least!"

"I'm not thirsty!" Ptilol protested. "Now, finish your story."

Cyprine rolled her eyes in annoyance. "So, the compound raid was, I think over twenty days ago, twenty-one maybe, and now he's hiring more dealers! And trust me, _nobody_ is going to cross him now, not for anything. He can hire with impunity, knowing that none of them are going to betray him or steal from him, because none of them want to end up a mangled, burned-up corpse. He's literally hiring his customers! People who buy his product, he's taking them on, because he doesn't have to worry about them getting out of line. He's growing exponentially, and now he's selling on our territory!"

"His dealers are selling where our dealers sell?" Ptilol whispered.

"Territory that we've owned for nearly ten years, and they're just moving in on top of us." Cyprine's eyes flashed with a snap of anger, expression hardening. "And his product is so far beyond anything we have, it's not even a competition. Ordinarily, our guys would have just taken them out on their own, but...well, they like being alive." She sighed. "And frankly, I don't know what to do. If I directly order them to take the intruders out, I'm sure they'll do it, but there's no way we can contract this out. No syndicate is going to mess with Tuxedo Mask's network right now." She grimaced. "I think we underestimated him. He must be powerful to have pulled off something like that massacre." She looked over at her twin intensely. "If bossman wants us to knock off his dealers, then I'll give the order, but I can't help but wonder if it ends with _me_ getting set on fire."

"Alright." Ptilol blinked down at the tablecloth a couple times. "Calm down. It's a setback, that's for sure, but I spoke with the boss a couple days ago, and he—"

"W-wait, you spoke to him? In person?" Cyprine interrupted. "What did he say?!"

"Not a lot," Ptilol admitted, quickly glancing to the left and right to make sure the immediate area was vacated. "He just told me what to tell you. But, he must be generally aware of what's going on, so I'm sure his orders are taking this into account. He knew that our first attempts to sabotage Tuxedo Mask's distribution could end up failing, he had multiple levels to his plan."

"Well, did he anticipate level one would end up _helping_ him immensely?!" Cyprine snapped, squeezing her fork in between her small, slender fingers. "And by the way, I don't really appreciate just being hung out to dry for over twenty days. I've just been standing around with my thumb up my ass, having no idea what to do!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but the boss wants this operation handled the old-fashioned way. No communicators, no recorded messages." Ptilol paused for a moment, taking time to think. "He said nothing about taking out his dealers, so hold off on that for now."

"Did he at least tell me what I _should_ be doing?" Cyprine asked.

Ptilol nodded. "Just listen up, okay? Forget the massacre, forget his dealers selling on our territory, if this works none of that will matter. The boss gave me a location. I don't know how he found it, probably Eudial's doing, but your orders are simple." She reached down her leg, pulling back her skirt a tiny bit underneath the table and removing a small glass vial from it. "We use this location to get Tuxedo Mask in hot water. Should be easy, and the best part is we don't have to put ourselves in any danger, and we don't require the cooperation of any crime syndicate."

Cyprine leaned forward again. "Go on. Tell me more."

"

Queen Mars held the blue-and-white folded piece of paper up in her hands, looking over the finest curated writing along the front of it. The design of the invitation was, in its own way, an impressive accomplishment, managing to come across as a piece of art despite being a disposable piece of paper. The hand drawings on the front were clearly done by a skilled artist, and the way in which the entire invitation was constructed almost seemed to tell a coherent story with both the words and the pictures.

"Yes. I got it too." Queen Mars said, looking down at the active communicator on the table in front of her. She was reading the invitation by candlelight in her private chambers, a rather plain and unremarkable room despite the massive importance of the one who used it. You could have fit perhaps ten of this room into Endymion's bedroom. However, the chamber was thick with remarkable, rare, and valuable artifacts of Mars's long, storied history, speaking to the deep connection she held with the Kojiki.

"I believe all the royal families got invited," Princess Mercury's voice came through the communicator. "I would expect so, anyway, Neptune is awful proud of their theater productions. And this one seems to be quite a big deal."

"So, you're thinking this is it?" The Queen asked, looking at the inside of the invitation, which contained a long list of details of the event.

"I think so, yes," Mercury replied. "He'll be there, of course. Between the opera itself, the pre-party, and the post-party, it should be quite an extended event. At some point during it, I'll find a way to get him alone with us. Just promise me you'll be ready."

"How are you going to get him away from his generals?" Mars inquired. "Especially at an event like this, they'll be joined to his hip, I'm sure."

"I'll figure it out," Mercury said sternly. "I have plenty of time to figure it out, I'll do it. You just be ready to read him."

Mars nodded, although her conversation counterpart couldn't see her. "I'll be ready."

The line went dead, leaving Mars to contemplate the invitation, as well as the potential trouble she might end up getting herself in with one of Mars's closest allies.


	21. The High Price of a Conscience

Chapter 21: The High Price of a Conscience

The elevator doors slid open, each half of the silver rectangular panel spreading to the side to reveal a small man wearing a grey trench coat and large silver glasses. He briskly departed the small chamber, the handle of a black square briefcase in his right hand, moving down the long, thin hallway with blue doors every couple dozen paces on either side of him.

He stopped before one with the numbers '805' pasted in blocky black text on the center of it. Glancing to either side, peering down both ends of the hallway to confirm he was alone, he reached forward and rapped his knuckles on the wood.

Three times, then he paused for two beats, then four times, then a pause for four beats, then once more. He waited, nervously shifting his weight back and forth.

Finally, the knob twisted and the door opened, a mid-sized woman with red hair beckoning him into the low-end apartment room.

"Morning," he muttered, stepping into the small main hub of the apartment, black boots sinking slightly into the garish blue carpet. Two other individuals, both men, one tall with no hair and another short with curled black hair. The only notable thing about the small and cheap apartment room was a large silver contraption sitting on the desk in the corner, box-shaped with a viewing port on the side.

"We ready to cut?" The tall one asked, as the new arrival went over to the bed to set the briefcase down atop the sheets.

"Yup." He began to fiddle with a row of rotating dials on the front of the case, by the latch, running his thumbs along the fronts of them. "Hey, Salvius, I've got an extra ticket for the match tonight, you want it?"

"I already got mine," Salvius answered, watching as the briefcase was unlocked. "Right in the middle, too. Thanks, though."

"Oh, sweet deal." With a click, he lifted the suitcase lid up, exposing the contents, a paper-wrapped package. "It's three-for-two night on polish beef links."

"Believe me, I know," Salvius said, grabbing the paper package and unwrapping it quickly. Soon, twelve perfectly-cut cubes of crystal clear imperium were exposed, Salvius laying the package down on the bed and grabbing one of them. "I'm gonna have like ten of them."

"Hey, Cato!"

Cato looked over his shoulder, having been hailed by the female member of their quartet.

"You've got an extra, you said?" she asked.

"Yeah, you want it?" Cato asked. "Just remember me next time you make a batch of those pastries, maybe?"

"Sounds good to me," she replied. "I'll take it."

Salvius, meanwhile, had taken the cube over to the large device on the desk, peeling open a panel on the left side and inserting the cube within. "Okay, time to get cutting."

With a few presses of buttons on the front panel of the contraption, the cube had been grabbed by a couple of metallic arms, and a tiny little green laser had activated inside, on the end of a microscope. Salvius began to fiddle with the controls, manipulating the arms and the laser in order to reduce the uncia into little fractions of carats.

"Is Adrian playing?" The fourth member of the small gathering asked.

That particular factoid was never voiced in the apartment room, for the blue door was violently kicked open at that moment, wood splinters scattering as the rectangular slab was blown straight off its hinges. Almost simultaneously, a heavily-armored man holding a large rifle landed on the fire escape and smashed through the glass window, sending shards of glass about as he stormed in. The four were taken by such surprise, that before they could even muster a reaction more than staring in shock at the intruders, half-a-dozen armed-and-armored individuals were inside at point-blank range.

"DOWN!" one of them yelled from behind a black helmet, sweeping the end of his weapon across the room. The four had no choice but to obey, falling to their knees and putting their hands up in the air immediately. "HANDS ON THE BACKS OF YOUR HEADS!"

With their immediate co-operation, the scene quickly got less chaotic. The four didn't even have time to consider the serious implications of what was happening and the possible consequences, it all happened so fast and without their input or influence.

"Room is clear!" one of the intruders announced.

"What do we got?" another asked.

"Looks like a Class B just on the bed," one of them answered. "Boys, I think we've got a _big_ one on the hook."

"

Kunzite stared into the mirror, hands gripping either side of the marble sink, knuckles white. He was scowling deeply at his reflection, somehow unhappy with what he was looking at.

With a frustrated wince, he reached up and scratched the top of his head, trying to decipher the conflict happening in his mind that was bleeding out into his physical appearance. He had to at the very least hide it. Keep it inside. It was not becoming of someone in his line of work to be affected by anything. And yet, no matter how many days got between him and the incident at The Bloody Spears compound, he found himself mentally lingering on it.

Three dozen people getting swallowed up by a massive ball of fire, right in front of him. Yes, they were all criminals by any reasonable definition, but somehow, the visceral method by which they had gone was unsettling to him. He had seen people die many times before. Had been the author of their deaths before. But he just couldn't quite get the images out of his head, nor their choked screams that were barely audible as the plume smashed down on top of them.

It wasn't even his doing that they had gone, nor gone like that. But despite all of that, he found himself affected. And the last thing Kunzite needed in his life was to be affected.

"Kunzite?! You here?"

The general was brought back to reality harshly, forced to live in the here and now. He quickly forced a neutral expression on his face, then turned around to exit the lavatory, sliding the white door open back into his bedroom. Nephrite was standing in the middle of the room, the wrinkles etched into his forehead telling part of a story.

"We have a situation," the brown-haired general began. "There's been an arrest. Four of them, actually. And we won't just be able to just wait these ones out."

Kunzite closed his eyes. "Oh, _shit_ ," he said under his breath. "How bad?"

"Four of my sergeants got raided with a full libra over in Hoboken. They're being held in Alexander Penitentiary over there. They're being charged with possession, and given that they had a microscopic laser with them they'll at least try to say intent to sell."

Kunzite reached up to rub at his face. "Eight years at least, then. Probably more."

Nephrite nodded. "I don't know how they found where they were cutting the product. We kept moving, kept everything quiet, I can't figure that part of it out."

"Unless they're stupid enough to let them out on bail, which I wouldn't count on at all given how starved the agency is for a real arrest, this could be difficult," Kunzite muttered. With a sigh, he looked over at the primary door to his chambers, over to his right. "Well, I suppose the sooner we break the news, the sooner we can work on a solution."

"

"I knew it!" Kasios yelped, jumping to his feet and clapping his hands together violently, eyes glued to the holographic message being projected up into the air right above the desk surface. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!"

Naxos gave a casual little nod. "Yes, yes, you knew it."

"Patience, man!" Kasios said. "Patience is the best thing you can have sometimes! Believe me, there are times in my life where I don't want to be patient, but I force myself to be, and time and time again, I'm happy I did!"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Naxos said, putting his palms out toward the High King. "Slow up there. Yeah, we've made a few serious arrests now, I'm excited too. But we're not even close to being done."

"Buddy, come on, we've worked hard for this, let's enjoy it!" Kasios enthused. "Look, these four assholes we caught, they weren't just chucklehead street dealers. They were _cutting_ the product. Middlemen! That means they're at least somewhat important in this organization, which means they have contact with the higher-ups! Maybe even Tuxedo Mask himself!"

"Maybe." Naxos shrugged. "Or maybe they do everything using dead drops. Just don't get too excited yet, let's save the celebration for after we've got Tuxedo Mask in a cell and his product in our vaults."

"I got a good feeling, alright?" Kasios said. "I got a really good feeling, can't help it!" He clapped his hands together again.

"I thought you might," Naxos said with a grin. "I figured I should be here when you got the news. Least I can do is let you tell me that you told me so."

"Nah, I'll hold onto that one," Kasios said. "So, two cycles down on Earth, and if they haven't rolled over by then, we get them up here."

"That's another thing," Nasos pointed out. "We'd actually need them to give up what they know, on top of knowing something worth giving up."

Kasios's face wrinkled. "We've got them on a Class B. After we're done with the charges, it'll be twelve years, maybe fifteen. One of them is rolling over." He looked around the office. "Screw it, I don't want to stay here! I'm too excited, let's head over to Alexander and see if they'll let us watch them grill these pricks!"

Naxos nodded. "My calendar's clear. But just so you understand, once we're back on Earth, I'm calling you Your Highness again."

Kasios rolled his eyes. "Alright. But you're letting me buy drinks after." He quickly strided around his desk, tugging at the lapels of his jacket.

"

Endymion had his back resting up against the bottom left post of Nephrite's bed, arms folded over his chest, leaning over slightly to look down at the carpet beneath his feet. Kunzite, Nephrite, and Zoisite were milling about as well, the room heavy with silence and concern.

"These four individuals," Endymion asked. "Do we have to worry about them in the short-term?"

"Salvius, Cato, Belen, and Selene," Nephrite recited. "They're not rolling over, if that's what you mean. They're solid, they're loyal, they knew the risks, and they won't say a word."

"But, they know that they're working for you," Kunzite pointed out. "They know that their orders came down from you, which thus could lead back to the Prince."

"Of course they know they were working for me," Nephrite admitted. "But they're not going to flip, so it's irrelevant."

"Maybe they won't flip now," Zoisite said warily. "Not while they're being held in Alexander, not before the sentencing. But when they're being transferred to _The Savery_ and are looking at over a decade up there? How can we be sure?"

"They're not flipping," Nephrite said sternly. "For multiple reasons."

Endymion sighed heavily. "I'd like to believe that, and part of me does. But I think it behooves us to prevent these four from ever getting on board _The Savery_ in the first place, for multiple reasons. So, options?" Endymion pursed his lips. "Post their bail, arrange for them to leave town and lay low for awhile?"

"No bail," Nephrite countered. "They've been deemed flight risks, and the agency has personally seen to it that there's no bail, given their obvious connection to the pure imperium."

Endymion nodded. "Worth a shot. How about a jailbreak?"

"Not likely," Zoisite shot down. "Dubious chance of success, Alexander has a good track record of keeping inmates inside."

Endymion swallowed down a lump in his throat. "Suppose we bribed some people? Got them to botch the case?"

"That's not going to happen with the agency involved," Zoisite said. "Maybe if it was just local authorities, but not like this."

"Then what else can we do?" Endymion asked, sounding mildly exasperated. "What are our options here?"

Kunzite ran his hand over his mouth. "Okay. The way I see it, options include doing nothing, and hoping that they don't flip during their presumably twelve year stay on _The Savery_."

"I advocate strongly against that one," Zoisite chimed in.

"Noted," Kunzite said. "The other option that I see would involve paying a prison gang with a presence in Alexander Penitentiary to…" he pressed his lips together tightly. "Have these four killed in prison, before transfer."

The silence in the room was deafening, with the impact of Kunzite's words sucking all of the energy out of the chamber.

"I think we could probably get it done for a hundred thousand creds, at most. Probably close to sixty," Kunzite continued. "Issue being, we'd have to have all four of them done rather quickly."

Endymion blinked a few times, then looked over at Nephrite. "How would you feel about that, Nephrite?"

"It's your decision," Nephrite answered flatly. "My network is yours to use as you wish, Your Highness."

"Perhaps so, but I'm asking you. These four, they're good, reliable informants for you? They've been good earners?" Endymion tapped his foot gently against the carpet.

Nephrite nodded. "I would not have given them such high positions in our distribution chain if I did not trust them and believe them to be especially competent."

"If it was up to you, you wouldn't want to see these four dead, or wasting away in prison?" Endymion asked.

Nephrite thought about his answer for a moment, gaze sweeping across the room, slowly. "I suppose not."

Endymion looked back over at Kunzite. "What else do you have?"

"Well, options at that point get rather thin, admittedly," Kunzite mused. "I'm sure that the agency doesn't want them. They will take them, of course, if that's all they have since they're certainly involved directly in imperium smuggling, but they're obviously not the big fish that they want. They want the higher-ups, the supplier, the chemist, the raw source. I'm sure they would be willing to give all four of them whatever kind of deal they wanted if they gave up the person that they were reporting to."

"So what?" Nephrite asked. "Get all four of them to flip on the lieutenant they reported to in exchange for the charges being dropped?"

"That leaves us in essentially the same spot," Kunzite said, shaking his head. "I'm sure their intention is to walk their way up the chain until they have the supplier. They trade in four sergeants for a lieutenant, the lieutenant gives them the boss, who gives them the chemist and the raw product."

"It would be significantly easier to perform a prison hit on one individual opposed to four," Nephrite reasoned.

"Nephrite!" Endymion said, an uneasy look on his face. "I...I appreciate your openness and your understanding, but I'm really not interested in having any of your men killed. And it's okay for you to not be either."

"The point is, whatever we do, _somebody_ ends up in jail. Question is, who?" Kunzite bit his lower lip.

"You're saying that we implicate someone else," Zoisite said thoughtfully. "Someone unrelated to our organization."

"Perfect!" Endymion enthused. "So, we just have to find some random scumbag out there to frame? Make sure they deserve to go to prison anyway, and then call it karma?"

Kunzite winced. "I wish it was that simple, but it needs to be believable. They're not going to release four mid-tier imperium distributors unless they're positive that they've got something worth the trade." He put his steepled fingers up underneath his chin. "This is going to take a little bit of time, I think."

"We've got sixty days," Zoisite pointed out.

Kunzite pointed at Zoisite. "Just in case, we need all four of the arrested to be informed that we're working on a solution. It obviously can't be any of us, so find an appropriate law expert to act as a messenger. Just deliver the message that we're working on getting them out, and they should wait." He then moved his finger over to Nephrite. "You're coming with me, we're going to Jupiter."

"What's on Jupiter?" Nephrite asked.

"I have a feeling that we'll be able to find just what we need over there," Kunzite explained. "Things haven't exactly been stable there for the last twelve years, should be the perfect breeding ground for a believable person to frame." He then looked over at his charge. "Your Highness, just wait, we'll have a solution when we return."

Endymion nodded.

"

The dim room was constructed almost entirely of steel, presenting a rather uncomfortable and unpleasant room to be in. On top of that, it was small, a low ceiling almost feeling as if it was smushing down on everything inside. Only a plain table with a chair on either side of it, as well as a single light fixture and security camera up on the ceiling, populated the room during normal hours. Right now, it was playing host to a pair of individuals. Cato, the incarcerated sergeant in Nephrite's distribution ring, was seated on the west chair, resting his arms on the table surface, staring straight forward. Meanwhile, a second man was on the opposite side, wearing a nice shirt and tie combination, holding a closed folder in his right hand, and staring over at the prisoner.

"Cato, buddy, I don't know what you're not getting here!" he shouted. "This is great! This is great news for you! The Galactic Imperium Agency doesn't want you. They don't give a shit about you! That's great for you! Because, honestly, we don't care about you either! The Earth Law Enforcement Bureau, the agency, we'd both be perfectly fine with you back out on the street, living your life, having a job and a family or whatever it is you do! Tomorrow, maybe! Tomorrow, you could be back outside, back to your old life, before you got caught up in all this imperium nonsense, and we'd be perfectly fine with that!" He stood up suddenly, nearly knocking the chair over underneath him.

Cato, for his part, showed no interest in the appealing offer, giving away absolutely nothing with his facial expression and maintaining a stony indifference.

"You think every small time criminal we haul in here gets that kind of offer? I assure you, they don't! Most of the time, the deals I get approved to offer includes things like extra desserts, thicker blankets. Sometimes, maybe a ten percent sentence reduction or a solo cell instead of a shared one. But not you, man. We want your supplier so badly, that you're getting off without a scratch if you give him up! No parole, no probation, just freedom!"

Cato shifted in his chair slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't have anything to say," he said simply.

The interrogator sighed. "Come on, man, we've got you in the room with three accomplices and a full libra of ninety-nine percent pure imperium. All the ninety-nine percent pure imperium in the galaxy right now is being sold through the black market. None of it is moving through the agency. You really going to waste your time trying to deny it?"

Cato gave a faint scowl as he stared over at the man opposite him at the table.

"Look, we've got three other steaks to grill, and I'm guessing you four all know the same things. So what's going to happen here is that, eventually, one of you four is going to flip. Whoever flips gets their freedom, the other three are stuck serving fifteen years on _The Savery_ with nothing to trade. Which one do you want to be?"

Suddenly, a series of soft beeps sounded off from the interrogator's belt. He lifted a communicator disc up in front of him after detaching it from his belt and pulled an earpiece off the side. He shoved it into his ear as he pressed the center of the disc. "Yeah?"

He listened for a moment, then gave an annoyed eye roll.

"Uh-huh," he said, turning the communicator off. "Think about what I said, huh? Somebody's going to talk, just a matter of who."

He made a beeline for a door, grabbing the knob and waiting for a moment before wrenching it open and walking outside. He was almost immediately replaced by a tall, thin blond man, wearing a black suit and pants with a red tie, a briefcase in his right hand. The camera up on the ceiling suddenly spun downward, dropping from pointing the lens right at Cato's face and instead looking straight down.

"My God, this room," the new roommate declared, looking around. "I swear, it gets more uncomfortable every time I have to go in it." He sat down in the recently-vacated chair. "You have any idea how thick the steel is on these walls? It's like they think you can shoot laser beams out of your eyes or your farts have the explosive yield of a torpedo."

Cato held his tongue, simply watching the newcomer open his briefcase and set a black square device on the center of the table, tapping a button on the side and causing it to glow blue.

"Scrambles any recording devices," he explained. "Video, audio. Don't worry, it's just a precaution. They're not supposed to be recording or monitoring this conversation anyway. Of course, they say they're not, but I like to be safe. So, everything you say right now is between you and me. My name's Miltiades, I'm a expert in Earth law, and your employer has hired me to act as an intermediary during this time."

Cato blinked dully, crossing his arms over his chest slowly.

"Umm...oh, right!" Miltiades reached down and placed his briefcase up on the table, popping it open and looking inside. "Uhhh...okay, I have it." He cleared his throat. "Fate whispers to the warrior."

"There's a storm coming," Cato replied stiffly.

Miltiades nodded. "And the warrior whispers back."

"I am the storm," Cato finished.

Miltiades closed his briefcase. "Alright, we good?"

Cato gave a begrudging shrug and nod. "Writing it down defeats the point, somewhat."

"Well, my brain is pretty full these days. You know, there are an awful lot of laws, I just don't have very much room." He leaned forward. "Now, this is a little unusual, but I'm getting paid all the same so I don't mind. I'm _actually_ not here to represent you or defend you. Your employer has just instructed me to pass along a message, which I will also be passing on to your three accomplices. Basically, just sit tight and don't say anything. Your employers are in the process of working on a solution to get all four of you out of here and clear of these charges, and it will be done before you're handed off to the agency. Just wait for further instructions." He nodded a few times, a gregarious smile on his face. "And that was it."

"I have no intention of saying anything to anyone," Cato said sternly.

"And that's very appreciated," Miltiades replied, nodding. "But your employer wanted you to know that they're working on getting you four off." He stood to his feet. "I can't really say any more than that right now, but that's the message. Ignore their deals, ignore their threats, just wait for further instructions."

Briefcase back in his hand, he marched over to the door, again grabbing the knob and waiting for a beat before twisting it open.

"

"So, she seems to be more perky now," Kasios said, pointing his tiny fork over his shoulder, behind him at the glass balcony doors. Endymion glanced over towards the point, although he of course knew that his father was indicating Serenity, who was laying back on the bed in Endymion's room and resting.

The father and son were out on the balcony, watching the last traces of the sun disappear over the horizon and invite in the night, working on pieces of gourmet chocolate cake.

"We worked it out," Endymion said quietly. "We're fine now."

Kasios nodded. "I mean, Gods, son, you had me worried there! All this work and time spent on you two getting together, the wedding, the union, and then you were acting like you wanted out that quickly?" He shook his head, stabbing his fork into the slice of cake gently and leaving it there, plate resting on the ledge. "I mean, you of all people, I still kind of can't believe it. Actually running off for seven days for a mad...sex adventure!"

"Well, you were right to not believe it," Endymion said slowly, looking down at the capital city below.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kasios asked.

"Nothing happened, is what it means," Endymion muttered, glancing over his shoulder. "I swear, I got out there, I was meeting women, I had everything right in front of me, there for the taking, and I couldn't do it." He shrugged. "I would just start thinking about her, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I got myself right there, three or four times, and...well, I didn't have it in me."

Kasios pursed his lips. "So...you didn't do anything?" he asked.

"Just couldn't do it, dad," he reiterated. "I don't have whatever the hell it is granddad had, that's for sure. So, me and Kunzite just went camping in the mountains out in the middle of nowhere for awhile. Did some sightseeing over on Jupiter's moons."

"Wow," Kasios uttered. "Well, I'm not exactly surprised, I guess. You always struck me as the loyal type."

"I feel a lot better now. Just getting out of the palace for seven days was good for me, I think." He glanced back over his shoulder. "And now, I'm about to have a daughter, so I think I'll be plenty occupied with that. I can't imagine a resurgence happening."

"Hm," Kasios grunted. "Loyalty. Live by it, die by it."

"What's that refer to?" Endymion put a small sliver of the cake into his mouth with the dessert fork.

"Oh, just...you keep a secret?" he asked.

The Crown Prince nodded. "Of course."

"We had a big breakthrough a few days ago," Kasios explained. "With the agency, the Tuxedo Mask crap." He wrinkled his nose. "God, I wish we had something else to call him. Sounds so stupid."

Endymion suppressed a face twitch.

"We've got four people dead to rights on Class B charges. Dead to rights! Spending the prime of their lives in a prison cell, and we're offering them the sweetest of deals to get out of it. I went over to Alexander the other day to watch the interrogations, and...just blows my mind, you know? We're offering them immediate freedom with no strings attached, all they have to do is tell us who their supplier is, and we can't get them to say a word." He sighed. "Somebody's running a tight ship."

Endymion gave a tiny little nod. "Well. Maybe they're scared. They talk, get out of prison, and then they get...uh, I think the term is wacked, by the people they betrayed?"

"Ahh," Kasios said dismissively. "See, son, y-you don't understand criminals. Trust me, I've been around them constantly for the last decade. The old school criminal outfits on Saturn's Moons? Yeah, those guys won't roll over for anything. But other than that? I haven't met an imperium smuggler who wouldn't give up their mother if it meant a shorter stint on _The Savery_. This Tuxedo Mask crew, it's new. It's corporate. Small, but professional. They don't have any of those horseshit rituals where they all get tattoos on their pricks or they cut off their fingers to atone for failures."

Endymion took in a little breath. "Do people actually get tattoos on their...uh…" He made a non-descript gesture with his hand, pointing downward.

"It's been known," Kasios replied. "But anyway, yeah, it's just driving me crazy how I can't get this guy. Given the circumstances, there's no reason why he shouldn't be wasting away in a cell right now. Small operation, easily identifiable product, business-like organization." He wiped at his forehead. "Almost enough to make me question myself."

Endymion squinted over at his dad. "Question yourself? How?"

Kasios grimaced. "It's not like it's normal, you know. Being a High King, responsible for two different Kingdoms." He gave a slanted little grin. "Admittedly, they're right next to each other. But all that, and then you scoop on being on the high council of the most powerful entity in the galaxy?" He squeezed his eyes shut. "I never really thought about it before. Thought it was just something you did, as a person. If you had the ability to affect positive change, then you would do it, and that's all there was to it."

Endymion put another small piece of cake into his mouth, listening closely.

"I don't know what it is. For the first time ever, I've been finding myself thinking...there's not enough me to go around between the Earth Palace and _The Savery_. I think it's just, everyone up there thinking I'm doing things wrong. I've got the whole rest of the council, they're all telling me how I should be conducting this investigation. And I'm _sure_ they've got the wrong idea, and that I know what I'm doing the right thing. This kind of stuff doesn't happen very often, you know. Usually, you follow the playbook, and before long you're slapping the cuffs on the supplier and taking ownership of his raw product. But now, I just…" he shook his head.

"Maybe I'm biased, but I tend to agree with you when you say you know what you're doing," Endymion muttered.

"What if I'm wrong?" Kasios thought aloud. "What if my methods are just setting us back, and letting this guy just sink his roots deeper into the black market, burning through his product by the day?" He gave an annoyed little frown. "What if I can't see things objectively, because I'm the King of Earth as well? Just, I've never felt that pressure before. The pressure of having both roles, feeling like I'm up there when I should be down here, or down here when I should be up there." He blinked down hard. "Makes me wonder. Maybe it is too much for me to handle."

"Maybe," Endymion replied softly. "Then again, there's no getting around the fact that all of us only get one chance at this."

"Hm?" Kasios raised an eyebrow at his son.

"Life," Endymion answered the unspoken question. "All of us, we get one chance at life. We can't save anything for the next time around, we have to leave it all out there while we're here. And the extraordinary things that we can do in life, the things we can do to go above-and-beyond, those are the things really worth doing."

Kasios finally took another bite out of his slice of cake, picking the tiny plate off the ledge of the balcony.

"If you don't do those extraordinary things, then what's the point? If you can't rise above expectations, who's going to remember you? And I think that people find an inner peace, when they manage to achieve those high ambitions, knowing that they'll be remembered as something more than they were given credit for." Endymion looked up towards the darkening sky, in the direction of where the Moon was starting to become visible. "For over...five years of my life, I spent far too much time worrying about finding a way to exceed expectations. To be special. Sometimes made it hard to sleep at night."

Kasios's face wrinkled. "Son, you're the Prince of one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the galaxy and—"

"My entire life, I have had everything handed to me. Put right in front of me. Be told that I would have great things given to me, knowing it was only because I was born into it, because I just so happened to come out of the right womb. Things built and made great by others. I'd be handed these things, and asked to not screw it up. And I wondered. What chance did I have, of being able to actually be extraordinary, having been born into all of this, doing nothing to earn it?"

Kasios tilted his head slightly over at his son.

"And I'll tell you, dad. Now that I've been able to build something that nobody expected. Create something that matters to the whole galaxy. Assure my place in history as a memorable, important figure who went above expectations and earned something special. Well. I sleep just fine."

Kasios nodded. "Well, that's...that's great, son. I'm happy for you, then." He glanced up at the Moon. "Bringing the two Kingdoms together as one, that was certainly an accomplishment."

Endymion gave a wan smile, then reached over and slapped his father on the shoulder. "I'm sure those prisoners will give up what they know soon. You'll have your man before you know it."

With that, the Crown Prince turned around and strode back to the glass doors back into his bedroom, Kasios left there to nurse the last of his cake.

"

Kunzite held up a mid-sized photograph of a middle-aged woman's face. A slim, narrow face with black hair up in a ponytail. Endymion was sure he didn't recognize it.

"Cassandra," Kunzite said. "One of the many dozen advisors to Queen Jupiter, and one of the many dozen caretakers who oversaw control of the planet until the current Queen came of age."

"What about her?" Zoisite asked.

"She's exactly what we were looking for," Kunzite explained. "The former King and Queen of Jupiter passed away over twelve years ago, leaving their advisors to assume control of the throne until their daughter came of age. It's not easy, having all those people trying to run things, all the while they try to train a young child on how to one day be an effective Queen. So, unsurprisingly, things have been a bit of a mess. Inefficiency, poor planning, and corruption have been running rampant, and still are. So, we have here Cassandra, forty-year-old woman, ran the treasury on Jupiter. Still does. And, during that twelve year period where things were hectic and scrambled, she was taking a little more than she had agreed to out of that treasury."

"Skimming off the top?" Endymion said under his breath.

"I imagine it was pretty simple, probably didn't take that much at a time. Apparently, she's got a large extended family with a lot of problem. Gambling, medical bills, loans, all kinds of embarrassing problems that you'd rather not people know about when you're working for a royal house." Kunzite set the picture down on the table in front of him. "According to the information brokers we spoke to on Jupiter, she stopped doing it after the current Queen took the throne. Can't say why, maybe she starting feeling guilty or felt it would be harder to get away with. This is our mark. This is how we get the agency looking in the wrong direction. And we found a group on Jupiter that is willing to do it."

"Do what, exactly?" Endymion inquired.

"Arrange for Cassandra to be framed as a high-ranking individual in our organization. She's already guilty of twelve years worth of embezzlement, it'll be a simple matter to say that she stopped doing it because she got involved in something far more lucrative and far less betraying of her Queen's trust. Our first barrel of boron fluid was stolen from Jupiter, so it'll be easy to assume she was involved in that as well. She spends plenty of time off-world visiting her family, who are scattered all around the galaxy, so all of her time is not accounted for. We get our four incarcerated lieutenants to accuse her of being their contact point for the refined imperium, in exchange for immediate release without parole, which they will grant out of desperation to make a real break in this case. They'll investigate, and find the evidence that this group plants. She gets arrested, our men get released, and by the time they realize that she either doesn't know anything or won't give anything up, our men will be laying low, far far away from Hoboken."

All four individuals in Nephrite's room took a moment to digest the entirety of the plan, mulling it over.

"A story the agency will believe," Endymion said quietly.

"The group that is willing to plant the evidence wants two and a half million creds," Kunzite said. "And a libra of imperium."

Endymion's nose wrinkled a bit. "That's almost five million total."

"The imperium is for the frame-up," Kunzite explained.

"So. Option three," Zoisite mused. "I seem to recall us at least considering our original option two as viable?"

"Certainly cheaper," Kunzite pointed out.

Endymion looked down at the carpet beneath his feet, then his gaze shot up over to Nephrite, who was seated on the side of his bed. "It's your call, Nephrite."

"No, it's your call, Your Highness," Nephrite said quickly.

"I'm making it your call," Endymion insisted. "They're your men. It's up to you."

Nephrite exhaled out his nostrils, crossing his arms over his chest, trying to look indifferent. "They've been loyal to us. To me. If it's my call. I say we reward that."

Endymion looked over at Kunzite. "Make it happen."

"

Kasios sat down on the left side of the long, metal table, with Naxos seated to his immediate right and assorted prison wardens and local law enforcement supervisors to his left. He looked as if he was settling down before a desirable, long-awaited meal, for as excited as he was.

"Hoo boy, for a little bit there I was actually afraid they weren't going to crack," Kasios said, clapping his hands together. "I forgot how much people hate the concept of living in a small dark cell on board a space station."

"Your Highness," the man to Kasios's left said. "It wasn't necessary for you to be here during this, but I must say, it's an honor to have you. My name's Christian, I'm the law enforcer supervisor for the Hoboken region."

"Oh, I want to be here for this, Christian, trust me," Kasios said quickly. "So, who flipped? Who's getting the shiny red apple?"

"All of them," Christian replied. "They all had the same lawman talking to them. He must have convinced them that talking was their only way out. Here's the thing, though, Your Highness. These four, they're loyal to each other still, even if they're willing to break their loyalty to their point of contact. All of four of them are willing to give up their source, but only if all four of them are given the same deal. Time served, no probation. They've all said that they won't say anything unless all four of them are included." He slid a small stack of papers over towards Kasios, pushing it across the table surface. "It's unusual, for sure. I've drafted up this document with that deal, signed by all four, me, and the head prison warden. We need someone from the agency to sign off on it as well, and it could certainly be you, Your Majesty. If you're willing to accept such a deal, of course. If their information is solid, it will put all four of them back on the street in a matter of days."

Kasios's face wrinkled. "Who gives a shit about them? I'll go over there right now and give them all handjobs if that's what it takes for them to give up their supplier."

Christian was silenced as Kasios picked up a pen from the table surface and flipped through the stack quickly, seemingly taken aback by the High King using such language. Indeed, the entire room was rather eerily silent as Kasios put his signature on the final page of the document stack.

"Of course, the deal is only valid if we're able to actually charge whoever they give us," Christian finally managed to say. "Their testimony, even if it's in unison, won't be enough without evidence."

An older, bald man at the left end of the table pressed his finger into a glowing-white gem on the table in front of him. A light above the lone door in or out of the room turned on, and a moment later, the door opened. A woman with red hair marched in, hands and feet both glowing pink, as her movements were restricted by a simple field. She stiffly stepped over to a metal chair in the middle of the room, before the row of men and women across the table, and sat down.

"Selene," Christian said. "The deal has been signed off on, with multiple witnesses." He delicately reached forward in front of the High King and slid the stack of papers across the table over to the red haired woman. "Have a look, if you'd like."

She quickly peeled up a few pages to look at the signatures on the end.

"Now, that deal is bird nest fodder unless what you tell us is the same as what your three friends tell us," Christian continued. "And also, whoever you implicate, we have to be able to made solid charges against them. So, what do you have for us?"

Selene glanced around the room, taking note of the half-a-dozen cameras pointed at her.

"My point of contact with the supplier of imperium," she answered. "I don't know how high up she is in the organization, but she's claimed in the past to have direct contact with the actual supply and the chemist."

"So not the actual supplier," Kasios reasoned.

"I can't tell you for sure," she said. "But she's the one we've always collected the imperium from. We take it from her, slice it up, get it out to the dealers on the street."

"What can you tell us about her?" Christian asked.

"That she's not as careful as she should be," Selene replied. "I know who she is."

Christian cocked his head. "You've got a name?"

"Name, position, location." She shrugged. "I wanted to know who I was working for before I got too involved, and she made the mistake of leaving behind a few hair strands at a meeting with us. The other three know all this as well."

"Let's hear it," Kasios urged.

"Her name's Cassandra." Selene tried to shift her body in the chair, but her limbs were still held in place by the fields. "Works for the throne on Jupiter."

"

"You have all gone insane!" Queen Jupiter yelled, putting her hands on her hips and projecting a powerful, imposing figure over at the assorted agency soldiers who had forced their way into the large office. Cassandra had her face pinned down to the desk, hands held behind her back, two pink-glowing rings on her wrists that held them together tightly. Despite being faced with an assortment of heavily armed individuals, Queen Jupiter was unwilling to back down. "I cooperated with all of your ridiculous questions and intrusions, but this is too far! I'm not having you arresting one of my lead advisors, she's done nothing wrong, stop this immediately!"

"Your Highness, there's some things you're unaware of right now, after you're informed you'll understand," agent Felix said quickly as Cassandra was allowed to lift her head off the desk.

"Cassandra has submitted herself to your questioning and done everything you asked!" Jupiter insisted. "She has a very important job to do, here, and unless you can give me a very compelling reason I'm not going to stand for this!"

Felix sighed. "Your Majesty, Cassandra hasn't been doing her very important job particularly well. Hasn't for a long time, actually."

"And who are you to make a statement like that?!" Jupiter demanded.

The door behind the Queen slammed open, Lyra rushing in, out of breath.

"...h…how did...how did you...get down here...so fast?" she panted, putting her hands on her knees and bending over.

"Not right now!" the Queen snapped.

"Queen Jupiter, your head of the treasury has been embezzling funds from you," Felix explained. "When we did a deep dive into her financials during our initial investigation, we found some minor discrepancies. It wasn't enough to pertain to our investigation, so we left it alone at the time, but she's been stealing creds from Jupiter for twelve years."

Jupiter's harsh face finally softened, eyes widening and mouth falling open a slight amount. "W...what?"

"Sorry to break it to you like this, but you're free to review our research, she's stolen tens of millions of creds from the planet treasury ever since your parents passed. We're quite sure of this."

"U-uh…" Jupiter wasn't really sure how to respond, instead looking over at Cassandra's face. The middle-aged woman reluctantly turned away from the confused gaze, nothing to say in her defense. "C...Cassandra, I...are you…"

She gave a quick little nod, eyes visibly tearing up.

"W-wait," Lyra suddenly spoke up, having gotten her breath back. "That's not agency business! That's entirely a local matter, that's between her and the Queen! How can the agency arrest her for that?"

"Y-yeah!" the Queen perked up. "And I pardon her!"

Cassandra nearly jumped a slight amount off the ground at that exclamation, before being forcefully held down by the armed soldier behind her.

"W-whatever, I don't care, she was doing a good job, maybe she...maybe she should have gotten a raise!" Jupiter reasoned. "I don't care if she stole some money, that's my concern, and I'm not pressing charges! Or whatever!"

"That's actually not why we're here," agent Felix explained. "Cassandra stopped skimming money out of the treasury in recent cycles. No point when you're printing creds because you've gotten involved in black market imperium smuggling, right?"

"I don't know anything about that!" Cassandra argued, getting her gusto back after having been so quickly let off the hook by her Queen. "I...I was stealing funds from the treasury, I admit that, and I'm sorry! I was embarrassed about my family problems and didn't want to talk about them, but I've never had anything to do with imperium smuggling!"

"We have four members of an imperium distribution ring currently being held in prison down on Earth who would all say otherwise," Felix countered. "They said they believed you had direct contact with the supplier of the ninety-nine percent pure imperium that's shown up recently, and you were a big player in their operation."

"That's impossible!" Queen Jupiter interrupted. "She's busy keeping the treasury running here, she wouldn't have time for something like that!"

"We have a long list of excused absences on her official record to 'visit family members' that would say otherwise," Felix said, starting to sound bored now. "And either way, we've already raided the apartment on Io that was registered in her name and found a libra of imperium hidden under the bathroom sink, so we really don't need much more proof than that."

"I don't have an apartment on Io!" Cassandra said, voice starting to get panicked, looking up over her shoulder at the guard standing right behind her. "Why would I need one? That doesn't even make sense!"

"Well, you can't exactly run an imperium smuggling organization out of a royal palace," Felix said. "Now, I really don't have to explain myself any more than I already have, I am well within my rights to place this woman under arrest." He turned to Queen Jupiter. "I would begin searching for a new treasury head immediately, whatever happens from here on out this woman is not to be trusted."

With that, the collection of agency employees began to form up in a line, pushing Cassandra into the middle of it, and began to quickly march out of the office, around the Queen and her closest advisor. Jupiter just stood there, trying to find the strength and confidence she had when she had first entered the room, but her head was spinning.

"W-wait!" She turned around, watching the line of men and women disappear out into the hallway, ignoring her entirely. "I…"

Lyra came up next to Queen Jupiter, putting her hand on the small of her back. "It's hard to avoid accidentally picking a few bad eggs when you're trying to put together a cabinet to run a planet of this size. I'm so sorry, Your Highness."

Jupiter just stood stock-still, listening to the assorted footsteps outside start to fade.

"I need her!" she said, this time in more of a whine.


	22. The Circle of Life

Chapter 22: The Circle of Life

Princess Serenity leaned back on the chaise, holding her right hand up by her side, Kristen holding the small appendage in both of her hands and gently massaging it with her strong fingers.

"It was so nice meeting someone like that," Serenity said. "Someone who genuinely cares about how her children are raised and wanting to be involved." Her face clouded slightly. "So many of these wealthy mothers just hire people to handle everything with their kids, it's almost disheartening to even think about. But this woman, married to a man who owns a platinum mine, basically printing money, she's got one midwife! And she barely lets her do anything either, she wants it to be all on her."

"Does that mean we should be planning on looking for new jobs soon?" Delia came over towards the reclined Princess, holding a white tray with assorted cups on it in both of her hands.

Serenity giggled as Delia set the tray down on a nearby table. "Not at all. A royal baby is still a royal baby. Just don't expect me to disappear for cycles and leave you all to…"

She winced, her sentence fading without being fully expressed. She blinked a few times, left hand quickly coming up to rest on her inflated stomach. Her eased smile disappeared, and she looked down at her belly.

"Your Highness?" Kristen asked, releasing Serenity's hand and letting it fall to her side.

"I...uh, I just...hm," she mumbled. Suddenly, she sucked in a massive breath, her muscles contracting, legs folding up towards her body and arms crossing over her chest. "Oooooh!" she groaned, face wrinkling as she took on a pained expression.

Endymion, who had been reading a book on the bed, looked up as Serenity started to take a series of rapid, in-and-out breaths. Kristen and Delia just stared, all three of them thinking the same thing but not quite ready to say it.

Serenity blinked rapidly, hands on her stomach. And then, she gave a loud moan of pain. Immediately, both midwives stood up, and Endymion practically flew up off the bed.

"I think this is it!" Delia said, looking over at Endymion, who was already reaching over to a rectangular piece of equipment on the bedside table. He twisted a knob on the top of the grey device, then lifted it to his mouth.

"It's time! Everybody in! Not a drill!" he said firmly, before setting the short-range communicator back down on the table. The two present midwives were assisting Serenity in standing up, guiding her as she waddled over towards the bed. Endymion kneeled down and reached underneath the bed, pulling out a rolled-up white sheet. Quickly, he shook it out of its roll, laying it flat atop his sheets length-wise.

"Right here," Endymion urged, the two midwives leading the clearly-pained princess over to where her husband had indicated. "Oh, beautiful, let's get it done, right here!"

The bedroom door swung open, four men toting large leather cases quickly entering, followed by four women. Their movements were hurried, yet controlled and measured, easily spreading out amongst the massive room. The four men, Dennis leading them, closed in on Serenity as she was being laid out on her back.

"I've seen enough women go into labor in my time to have a pretty good feeling!" Kristen said, backing off to allow the four doctors to take control of the situation.

"So, we're doing it right here?" Dennis asked. "You good with that, Your Highness?"

"Y-yes," Endymion said quickly. "I'd be honored, actually."

"Alright!" Dennis clapped his hands together, approaching the pained Princess. The three other present doctors bent down to the floor, setting their large leather cases down and popping them open to reveal assorted medical equipment and paraphernalia. "Gentlemen, let's get this Princess out into the world!"

"

Claus closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting the frigid chill of the early morning wake him up. The cold snuck past his large grey jacket, seeping through the fabric and blasting away at whatever bits of skin they could find. Even as it made him wince, it also brought life to his tired mind and body.

The concrete jungle of a city surrounding him was also just starting to wake up as well, the street before him hosting a few wheeled vehicles sweeping by, the hovering speeders above practically asserting their dominance over their inferior predecessors.

The crowds were just beginning to filter out onto the streets, yet another day of dealing imperium on the orders of the crown before him. He was already thinking about all the money he'd be making, when suddenly, a black van braked to a halt on the street right in front of him.

He didn't give it much of a thought at first, and before he could give it enough consideration to be concerned or suspicious, he was suddenly hit by a figurative freight train of energy, right between the shoulder blades. He couldn't even shout before his nerves were stimulated to the point where he passed out, falling limp.

The two tall men who had come up behind him caught him as he slumped over, one of them putting a metallic rod back inside their trench coat, and pushed him over towards the van. The side door to the vehicle slid open, and they pushed the unconscious imperium dealer inside.

"

One of the doctors placed a purple apparatus, a mouthpiece mounted onto the side of a round bulb, into Serenity's mouth. She bit down on it, taking in a deep breath from the bulb.

"We're looking good!" Dennis said enthusiastically. "Contractions are getting longer and more frequent, so we're definitely getting closer!"

Endymion was kneeling over by the side of his bed, right arm reaching out towards his wife, holding her hand in his. Every now and then, she gave it a firm squeeze, enough to make him wince slightly.

"I didn't think we'd go straight to these kinds of contractions," Endymion said, looking down at the four doctors keeping busy. All of them wore white aprons over their fronts, as well as gloves.

"Labor is unpredictable," Dennis said. "That being said, I think we're getting quite close." He looked over at the Prince. "You still want to, Your Highness?"

Endymion hesitated for a split second, but then nodded.

The door suddenly flew open, the High King of Earth practically sliding into the room. "How are we looking?!"

"We're on track," Dennis answered. "I don't think this labor will be much longer at all, actually." He picked up a square grey device and placed it on top of Serenity's stomach, moving it around. Another one of the doctors watched a small handheld screen that he was holding up, the information on the screen changing whenever the device was moved.

Endymion separated his hand from Serenity's, standing up. "Kristen?"

The blue-haired midwife of Princess Serenity, having retreated to the background of the room after the beginning of labor, immediately stepped forward. "Yes, Your Highness?"

"Suit me up." He walked over to one of the open cases on the floor, which had a stack of medical aprons and surgical gloves in it. The woman quickly walked forward, kneeling down by the assortment of protective gear, lifting one of them up and unrolling it.

"You know how to deliver a baby?" Dennis asked, as Serenity began to start loudly groaning again, reaching up to pull the breathing bulb out of her mouth.

"I've read about it and watched it being done," Endymion answered as Kristen helped lace up the apron over his neck.

"Just be careful when you're holding the baby when she comes out, she'll be slippery," Dennis instructed. "And I'll be standing right behind you if you need help."

"My father delivered me," Endymion said, glancing over to look at Kasios as Kristen helped fit the rubber gloves onto his hands. "Seems only right."

Serenity, panting in the aftermath of another sizable contraction, gave a weak little smile. "I didn't...I didn't feel...anything different earlier!"

"Sometimes, stage one of labor is barely distinguishable from the previous cramping," Dennis acknowledged. "But stage two, well...it's unmistakable."

Endymion rubbed his gloved hands together, taking in a deep breath and huffing it out. "Alright," he growled, widening his stance slightly to steady himself. "Serenity, you've been carrying her for nine cycles, my turn for a little bit."

Serenity nodded, placing the breathing bulb back into her mouth.

"

Claus had been dimly aware of the vehicle he had been shoved into lurching back and forth, but being aware of it was about all he was capable of right now. Body and mind still recovering from the powerful shock he had been given, he couldn't even open his eyes to get some idea of his surroundings. In fact, he only became aware of the fact that he was drooling out of the side of his slightly open mouth after several secundas. And by that time, the van was braking to a screeching halt, the doors sliding open, and his limp body being dragged outside.

He finally forced his heavy eyelids up, at first blinded by the early-morning light that made picking up on details impossible. After a few beats, the concrete ground and brick walls became clearly visible to him, as he was pulled down what appeared to be an alleyway. He didn't have control of any of his more meaningful muscles, just barely able to move his neck around now. He tried to vocalize something, but failed to get anything out.

He saw a few other large men gathered together in the alley, along with two people laying on their backs on the dirty concrete ground. He was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, the force of impact just adding to his already significant pain levels.

Adrenaline was causing him to regain control of his body a bit faster than otherwise would have been possible, fear of what these men might do to him managing to motivate him enough to crane his head back to look over at what he might be facing. With some effort, he managed to get his twitching arms underneath him and prop himself up slightly. Just as he was going to try to push himself up, he froze cold on getting a second look over at the two laying on the ground.

They were both wearing casual cold-weather outfits, large jackets and thick pants with brown boots. However, both were lacking a particularly important feature that people generally tended to have. Neither body had a head attached to them. Now noticing that disturbing fact, he was able to also take notice of the significant amounts of blood pooled up around their shoulders.

Terror seized him as he put two and two together, and he began fighting like never before to get to his feet. His attempts, however, were quickly halted as the collection of standing men came over to his prone body and gave him another zap with the prod. Knowing that he would likely never be waking up again, he collapsed to the ground, fading into blackness.

"

"Alright, Your Highness, once you start feeling this urge to begin pushing, just start pushing," one of the doctors instructed. "You'll certainly know it when it starts happening, it's unmistakable."

Kasios watched as his son bent down by Serenity's spread legs, arms crossed over his chest. Queen Serenity was watching from behind him, looking over from behind his shoulders, hands nervously clenching on the High King's forearms. Endymion's four generals had also made themselves available, standing over by the closet door, wanting to be present but not overly close to the bed.

"Good thing this room's so big," Kasios muttered, glancing around at the significantly-sized crowd that had spread themselves around. "Any more spectators, and she'd need to be giving birth in a handball stadium."

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Serenity gasped. "She wants out!" Her right hand, searching for some form of comfort in the absence of Endymion's hand by instead squeezing down on the hand of one of the doctors who wasn't immediately occupied.

"Push away!" he instructed. "Endymion, Your Highness, get ready!"

Serenity, with a series of verbalized groans and grunts, began to exert herself, placing pressure on the child inside of her to exit. Endymion watched, looking for some sign of his daughter, ready to put his hands forward to assist as soon as she made herself visible.

"Alright, that was a good one!" Dennis said. "Take a rest, gather yourself, and then push again!"

"I was in labor with her for twelve and a half minutas," Queen Serenity said quietly into Kasios's ear. "How long has it been for her? Three?"

Serenity began another series of primal grunts, straining herself. Endymion's eyes went wide as a tiny bald head suddenly began to force its way out.

"We've got a crown!" the Prince said, putting his hands forward to support the newborn's head as it slid out.

"

With a final swing of a razor-sharp machete, the head was separated from the body. Blood poured out of both separated body parts, yet again staining the concrete ground with a bright red puddle spreading in all directions. The executioner backed away before the spreading mess could ruin his shoes, quickly flicking the head away with the tip of his bladed weapon.

"Alright, let's get out of here!" one of the men ordered.

"Think that'll be an effective message?" The machete-wielding thug stepped over to the decapitated head and grabbed it by the top of its hair, picking it up and placing it up by the alley wall, right next to the other two.

"If it isn't, then I don't know what an effective message is anymore," the leader answered. With that, the half-a-dozen men scattered down either direction of the alleyway, putting distance between them and the bloody, macabre scene, knowing that any time now someone would be passing through to notice it.

"

"Wow." Endymion's right index finger slowly went down towards the newborn baby's face, stopping just short of her tiny nose. "Wow, wow, wow."

Serenity was holding the newly-born Princess in her arms, a cloth blanket wrapped around her tiny figure. She had stopped crying just recently, settling down into a gentle little slumber in her mother's arms. Only her face was visible in the bundle, eyes closed, gently breathing.

"She is perfect," Serenity said, exhausted from the ordeal, even if by all reasonable measures it was quite a short and simple labor.

Dennis, toting one of the large cases in his right hand after packing up, walked up before the High King. "All in all, an ideal birthing," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Congratulations on your new granddaughter."

Kasios, swallowing, gave the royal doctor a nod and a smile.

"Just keep her warm and let her rest. Both of them, actually," Dennis said, looking back over at the Prince and Princess. "Princess Serenity, you need rest after that, make sure you allow yourself time to heal. Me and my colleagues will return soon to do some basic checkups on both you and your new daughter. I'm confident you'll be feeling back to normal quite soon."

With that, he departed the room, leaving only Kasios, the three Serenities, Endymion, and two midwives left.

"So, Chibiusa it is?" Kasios asked, coming up closer to the bed and leaning over towards the infant.

"I'm on board for it," Endymion enthused. "Chibiusa."

Kasios glanced over at Kristen and Delia. "Now, I know you have a lot of experience with newborns, but this is nothing like anything you've seen before," he warned. "She's going to develop rapidly."

Delia pursed her lips, holding her hands together in front of her. "How do you mean?"

"Runs in the family," Kasios explained. "I'm a descendant of Aethlios, a man who was revered as a demigod back before the time of recorded history. I can't say I believe _that_ , but he must have been a pretty spectacular specimen to get that kind of credit. And it seems like we still have a few drops of the old bloodline." He pointed over at his son. "He was crawling when he was two cycles old and talking at four. About the same for me, too."

Princess Serenity was mildly taken aback at this, looking over at her father-in-law. "No way."

"He never told you?" Kasios questioned.

"I thought he was making it up to impress me," Serenity said, looking at Endymion out of the corner of her eyes. "Huh."

"She'll amaze you with what she's capable of," Kasios said. "All of you."

"Alright, sweetie, you need some space?" Endymion asked, worming himself off the bed.

Serenity gave a little nod. "I feel good, really, just...it does take something out of you, that's for sure."

Endymion slowly trudged around the bed, looking a little shaky and maybe even frail, but an undeniable relief in his facial expression through it all. As he came around, walking next to his father, Kasios put his right arm out and clapped his hand on the back of Endymion's neck.

"Lunch?" he asked his son.

Endymion nodded. He was about to say something when he was distracted by a faint buzzing from his belt. He reached down and pulled off his communicator, peering down at the grey disc as he put it up in front of his face.

"What's up?" Kasios asked.

"Oh, just Kunzite. Wants to talk." He clipped the disc back onto his waist. "Probably wants to know my schedule for the next few days."

"

"I am sorry to have to bring this to you on today, of all days," Kunzite said darkly, leaning up against the side wall in his private chambers, Endymion sitting in the middle of the room on a chair with his head bowed. "But I felt it was better that you know about this as soon as possible."

Endymion slowly nodded, face wrinkled and mouth turned down in a little scowl. "You did the right thing."

The two were silent for several beats, Endymion deep in thought.

"Three dead?" Endymion asked. "Could there be more coming?"

"Possibly," Kunzite said uneasily, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're sure this was related to the business?" Endymion inquired.

"Has to be," Kunzite affirmed. "Three of our street dealers, dragged into a back alley and decapitated? All three of them were selling in the same area, in territory that was previously occupied by another distribution network, it has to be a message. A warning."

Endymion sighed. "Make sure their families are taken care of. The three who died, I mean."

Kunzite nodded. "Two of them were recent hires, brought in just for the distribution. The third, however, was a member of Nephrite's spy network from before."

Endymion winced, giving a frustrated head shake. "I thought people were afraid of us! What happened to that? We've been selling in other networks' territories for several cycles now, nobody's even threatened us, and just one day, out of nowhere, they're publicly executing our dealers?!"

Kunzite shrugged. "The Bloody Spears incident was nearly four cycles ago. People tend to have a short memory, and there's little doubt that our recent expansion has threatened the very existence of other distributors. Desperation invites risk."

Endymion pursed his lips. "Do we have any idea who was behind this?"

"We can't confirm anything, but it would be reasonable to assume that we can pin this on the distributor who formerly sold on that territory." Kunzite swallowed. "So, we're looking at the network formerly run by Mimete."

Endymion nodded. "So, what do we do now?"

"The way this was done, it feels like a warning shot. If this was war, we'd have a lot more bodies by now. So, we're being given the opportunity to back off. We can take it. Withdraw all of our dealers from selling in rival territory, go back to where we were working before. We can still have expansion, just not to the magnitude that we had." Kunzite pushed himself off the wall, adjusting the buttons on the front of his uniform. "That's probably the most viable option."

Endymion stood to his feet. "Sure. Of course, we'd also be sending the message that we can be picked on with impunity. The people who attacked us this morning might just decide to keep pressing us until we get wiped out completely. And, not to mention, we'll be losing the respect of our dealers, and quite possibly the fear that kept our recent hires in line."

Kunzite nodded. "Reasonable concerns."

Endymion's nose wrinkled. "So. Suppose we fight back? Stand our ground? What would that entail?"

Kunzite sighed. "We'd have to kill some of their dealers. A lot of them. Enough to let them know that fighting with us isn't worth it. And then we'd actually have to hope that they accept that and back off. They could just as easily take it as an invitation to start slaughtering our dealers en masse."

"But it's possible?" Endymion asked. "It could be done?"

Kunzite reluctantly nodded. "Me, Nephrite, maybe a few others with experience, we could sweep through the town where our men were killed. Identify imperium dealers, assassinate them. Issue being, we'll have difficulty identifying which network a particular dealer belongs to, so we'd almost certainly end up killing a few dealers who are uninvolved in this little turf war. Not to mention collateral casualties."

Endymion nodded. "It'd be messy."

Another extended pause in the conversation, Kunzite becoming visibly uncomfortable, a fact luckily not noticed by his charge.

"Your Highness, I really advocate that we step back. We could cut back on the dealers, stop using the customers as sellers. You're right, we won't be able to trust them, so let's just stop using them. We go back to the original areas we were selling. I know it's not exciting, but we were making good amounts of money even then. We could start expanding again, slowly. Maybe work on absorbing small distribution networks into ours."

Endymion slouched over a bit, staring down at the carpet. "Like I said, if we back down, it could be the end of the whole thing. Maybe everyone starts taking shots at us, until there's nothing left."

"If we fight back, we might get that too," Kunzite countered. "We're outnumbered, Your Majesty. Badly. Probably twenty times over. If they decide to wage a war, we won't be able to stand up against them."

Endymion chewed on the tip of his thumbnail.

"It's not an easy decision to make," Kunzite admitted. "Of course, it is your decision, nobody else can make it. I just want to make it clear that I believe our best chance of survival is a tactical retreat."

The Crown Prince sighed, then gave a reluctant nod. He walked off towards the door to the bedroom, seemingly carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders yet again.

"So, which is it?" Kunzite asked, trying to mask the fact that he was rather scared of hearing the answer.

Endymion sighed. "I'll think about it. I'm just...I need to think about it. We should have at least some time, right?"

Kunzite thought for a brief moment. "A few days. Five, at most. At that point, something will have to give. I imagine that the next warning shot will be far more emphatic."

"And in the meantime, our dealers will lose their nerve," Endymion grumbled. "You'll have my decision within five days, I just need to think about this." He turned back around to the door, putting his hands behind his back anxiously and marching over towards it. "This is _not_ what I wanted to be thinking about today, that's for sure."

"

Kasios frowned as he looked into the small, dark room through a large window panel, a one-way window that was a mirror on the other side. Naxos stood at his side, observing the interrogation as well. The room could not have been much more plain, with a single chair right in the middle of it and a second chair against the left wall. The middle chair was occupied by a middle-aged woman, her wrists in steel cuffs that were attached to the ends of a long metal chain that was looped through a thick bolt on the floor. A short, fat man with blond hair was leaning up against the far wall.

"How many times am I going to have to say the same things?" she asked. "Just tell me the number, so I can stop expecting every time I say them to be the last time, please!"

"Cassandra, I really don't think you're getting this," the man said sternly. "For some reason, you're just not understanding what we're offering. It's the dream package to end all dream packages. You are sitting on a massive bargaining chip here, Cassandra! It's time to play it!"

"I've been up here for, what, twenty days now?" Cassandra asked, absentmindedly running the chain back and forth on the bolt, stretching her arms in either direction. "And every day, you pull me in here, you threaten me, you make me offers, and...nothing is going to change!"

"Cassandra, you've done a very, very bad thing. What you've gotten involved in, it's as illegal as it gets." He approached her. "You're looking at twenty-five years up here, minimum. You'll probably never step outside this space station again. But you've been given a free pass on all of that, all you have to do is take it!" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Give us the supply, the person in charge, the chemist, and boom, you're getting away with it! You can be out of here, clean and free, in a matter of days!"

"I would give anything and everything that I have to be out of here," Cassandra said tersely, looking down at the giant bolt in the floor that kept her anchored. "But I don't know about any supply, or person in charge, or chemist. I don't know about any of that, because I am not, and have never been, involved in imperium smuggling!"

He sighed. "Lady, we have four imperium smugglers on the record implicating you as their point of contact in their distribution chain, and we found a libra of imperium in an apartment registered to you on Io. The time for denial is over."

"I do not have an apartment on Io!" Cassandra snapped. "Look, sir, I have done bad things. I know that! I will be the first to admit I have made decisions that paint me in a negative light, and may even make me a bad person! I have stolen millions of creds from Jupiter, I took advantage of a unstable and messy regime, and I refused to be honest about the state my family was in. I confess to all of that, and I would happily face consequences for it. But this is not me." She sighed. "And if you don't believe that, then all I can ask for at this point is that you let me live out the rest of my days in peace in my cell, because dragging me in here every day to ask me the same questions over and over is wasting both of our time!"

The man shook his head. "Cassandra. The millions and millions of creds that you've made working with Tuxedo Mask? You can keep it. All of it! We don't care, we'll look the other way while you go spend it on whatever the hell you want to spend it on! We genuinely don't care! You've got a free pass, you can go live in a luxury apartment on Mercury or Neptune if you want to! I can't believe we're actually offering a deal like that, I've never seen us make that kind of offer to anyone, and that's what you're looking at! And the people you worked with, they'll be in here, unable to get anywhere near you! If that's not good enough for you, we can set you up with a new identity, where nobody will ever be able to find you!"

Cassandra didn't even bother responding to this, ducking her head down, staring at the floor.

"Well, either she's an incredibly good liar, or I believe her," Kasios said heavily, turning to look over at his fellow council member. "Can't decide which one."

"She's convincing," Naxos agreed. "Been incarcerated here for three-quarters of a cycle now, getting grilled every single day, and not so much as a crack?" He nodded, lips tightly pursed. "I don't know how she's doing it."

Kasios scratched the top of his head. "Shit. You know, I'm starting to think we got played."

"How do you mean?" Naxos asked.

"Means I think she might be telling the truth," Kasios explained. "She might not be involved."

"We've got four separate dealers implicating her and an apartment under her name with the clear product, how can she _not_ be involved?" Naxos asked.

Kasios scoffed. "Separate dealers. Interesting term to use, given how they were practically joined at the damn hip." He reached up to pick at his lower lip. "I'm thinking they were coordinated to finger the wrong person."

"That only explains half of it," Naxos pointed out.

"Not like Tuxedo Mask is running low on funds," Kasios reasoned. "You have enough money and the right contacts, you can frame anyone." He scowled. "The four we had incarcerated, try to look them up in Hoboken, I'll bet anything they're nowhere to be found now."

Naxos sighed. "So you don't think she knows what we want?"

"I'm not sure she knows anything," Kasios replied, turning away from the large window. "Or maybe she does, and she's not giving it up, which leaves us in the same position. After all, the last twenty plus days since we got her, the clear stuff is still being dealt all over Earth like nothing changed."

Naxos's forehead wrinkled. "You'd think there'd at least be a hitch in the chain if one of your big players got tossed in prison. You've got a point there."

"Shit," Kasios repeated. "This was it. This was the one. This was our shot to handle this, keep it contained to Earth." He shook his head. "We needed her to spill. Now I've got people on Earth getting their heads cut off in back alleys over turf disputes like we're on Saturn!"

"You're sure that was an imperium smuggling thing?" Naxos asked.

"Sure as I can be," Kasios said begrudgingly. "It's not enough to just have people shot now, you've got to actually behead them? You know, Earth is a civilized society! People are supposed to act reasonably! We've evolved past things like chopping heads off to send a message, but I half-expect to wake up every morning and hear that half the planet is a warzone now over this imperium! This ninety-nine percent stuff, it's completely changed the complexion!"

Naxos pursed his lips. "Well. There's always—"

"It's already being done," Kasios said bitterly. "I'm heading back to Earth tonight, and I'm drafting up some new laws. It'll take maybe a day for it to get filtered out to the local governors, and then we'll basically be Venus."

"It's for the best," Naxos comforted the High King, reaching over to put his hand on his shoulder.

"Always rolled my eyes at the way the current regime on Venus does things, never thought I'd start to see things their way," Kasios mumbled.

"They're strict," Naxos admitted. "But sometimes, strict is the way to go."

"Strict," Kasios repeated. "That's not the word a good chunk of their population uses. Or a pretty good portion of the population of the entire galaxy." He looked over at Naxos. "They prefer 'fascist'."

"Look, Kasios, you're not copying the entire Venus playbook word-for-word, you're just cracking down in one particular area in a way similar to what Venus has done," Naxos insisted. "Yes, Venus goes too far, but that's because they come down hard on everything. You're just adopting a no-tolerance policy on imperium smuggling, in response to a dire situation, temporarily!"

Kasios nodded. "I guess." He began to slowly walk towards the exit door, on the other side of the room from the window. "Still going to result in a lot of people getting handed some long sentences who don't really deserve it." He pressed his palm into a panel next to the door, causing it to slide open. "And I'll lose the ability to pardon them once they're up here."

"Maybe you can work something out with Galen," Naxos suggested, following the High King out of the room.

"Oh, and need I add, this probably won't even work, and we'll just force Tuxedo Mask to withdraw his efforts on Earth and look elsewhere, making him all the harder to catch," Kasios added, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe. But we can't know until we try," Naxos said.

"I get it, this is the only way. I've had three other council members approach me in the last few days, and I know Galen's going to take control of this situation any time now." He leaned up against the wall right next to the door as it slid shut. "It's happening, with or without me. At least this way, I can keep one hand on the wheel."

"You're doing the right thing," Naxos assured him. "Maybe it's not the perfect thing. But the perfect thing rarely exists."

Kasios leaned his head back against the wall behind it, giving a resigned little groan.

"

Endymion stared across the room at his closet door, expression vacant and hollow. His right leg was crossed over his left, sitting on the left side of his bed. He was vaguely aware of his wife sitting up behind him, giving some soft little baby-talk, but was frustratingly detached from it.

He wanted to be right there with her, huddling up over his brand new daughter, taking full advantage of every single beat of her new existence. He was angry that he couldn't. That other things were occupying his mind at this moment. But he could not help but be distracted by the fact that the very future of his 'side business' that he has spent the last half-year tuning hung in the balance of his next decision.

"What's a matter?"

Endymion twisted his body around, forced back into the moment by his wife's simple question.

"Why do you think anything's the matter?" Endymion asked quickly.

"Oh, you just seem a little...how should I say? Detached? You're just a couple haplouns away from your daughter right now, I would think that you'd be a little more involved." Serenity looked back down at the tiny little face poking out of the bundled blanket in her arms.

"Uh, yeah," Endymion mumbled, crawling over towards his wife and daughter, kneeling down up close to them. "I just can't help but get lost in it all, you know?" He blinked rapidly a couple times. "It all happens so fast, one day I'm just a kid, then before I know it, I'm a man, then I'm a husband, now I'm a father, it feels like all these things just happened one after the other."

Serenity nodded. "I feel the same way, I suppose. I still don't really feel like an adult."

"So much responsibility on me, all at once," Endymion said, trailing off. "Enough to make you just freeze up. Get lost in it."

Serenity bent over a bit to kiss Chibiusa's forehead, Endymion watching, trying to will himself to relish in these moments.

"

The small, round, orange ball rapidly bounced back and forth across the black table, each point of contact with the wooden surface drawing a sharp little clack of sound. There was also a dull little thwack between each clack, the sound generated as the ball was hit back in the opposite direction.

Kunzite and Nephrite were standing at opposite ends of the table, each one holding a small blue paddle, using the flat end of the tools to hit the ball. The force of their smacks resulted in tremendous speed on the ball flight, only their finely-honed reflexes allowing them to keep it in the field of play. The break room was playing host to only the two generals for the moment, the lounging area and the little kitchen both unoccupied.

The little ball continued to speed back and forth, both large men moving from side-to-side and throwing their right arms out in all directions to keep the ball in front of them. Finally, Kunzite couldn't quite get his paddle up high enough and the ball bounced over his head.

"You're distracted today," Nephrite commented as Kunzite turned around and chased the bouncing little sphere down. "You didn't even try to back up."

"Guilty as charged," Kunzite acknowledged, looking down towards his waist. "Just waiting for the word from His Majesty, can't help but take priority over paddleball."

"What do you think?" Nephrite asked as Kunzite grabbed the ball off the floor and held it between his index and thumb.

Kunzite hesitated, staring down at the little orb in his right hand. "Honestly? I think he's genuinely conflicted, and that ultimately he'll tell us to go ahead with the revenge hits."

Nephrite shrugged. "He seems more inclined lately to take initiative and be the aggressor, I'll admit that." He blinked. "Do you really think he'd approve having us murder thirty to forty people, though? Knowing that at least some of them will be unrelated to our turf dispute?"

"It's not hard to justify," Kunzite said darkly, putting his left palm down on the wooden table, setting the paddle down on it. "They're all criminals, after all."

"Well, if those are the orders, then those are the orders," Nephrite said. "I mean, that point isn't without merit. They are criminals."

Kunzite grimaced, reaching up to rub at his right temple.

"You don't approve?" Nephrite asked.

"Oh, well...I just don't believe it serves our interests," Kunzite mumbled. "I think it'll be a very messy endeavor that doesn't solve our problems."

Nephrite nodded. "Alright, your serve."

Kunzite gave a frustrated grunt, picking his paddle back up.

"

"Kunzite, we have to stand up for ourselves here. We have over a thousand people walking the streets of Earth, working for us, putting themselves at risk in service to us, and they need to know that we have their backs. If we back off now, shrink in the face of opposition, we lose their respect, we might even lose their willingness to work for us. We have to strike back against...we have to have our dealers' backs and…"

Endymion winced, sighing. He slowly looked around the hallway of the Earth Palace, down both ends of it, finding nobody but himself around. Nothing but the silence of an uneventful midday keeping him company.

He reached down towards his waist, yanking the communicator disc off of it and putting it up to his mouth. After a moment, he lowered it again, gritting his teeth.

"Okay...Kunzite, I think you're right, scaling back and being more respectful of other networks is the way to go," Endymion muttered under his breath, pacing back and forth down the carpeted walkway. "We pull back our dealers, let go of the ones we brought on recently, and try to be a little more methodical. We can accept a little bit of monetary loss right now if...peace is better than war, and…"

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He stood there, in the middle of the empty hallway, for some non-trivial amount of time, trying to figure it out. He went over to the window on the left side of the hall, peering out the glass pane down to the field below. He rested his forehead up against the cool glass.

"Troubled?"

Endymion turned around, finding his father casually strolling past.

"Don't worry, me too," his father added, slowing his gait to a halt. "Crown lays heavy, sometimes."

"U-uh...yes," Endymion managed to force out of his throat. "It's nothing serious, dad." He placed his hands down on the little windowsill, using it to support his weight. "Just a decision I have to make. A lot of those when you're a brand new father."

"Uh-huh, I know all about that," Kasios said, nodding easily. "But hey, at least you're getting to make the decision."

Endymion twitched his neck slightly over towards his father. "W-what's that supposed to mean?"

Kasios rattled out a small sigh. "Oh, just...man, Galen would stick _me_ in a cell if he ever knew how much I was blabbing about agency business."

"I'm your son," Endymion said, pushing himself off of the sill. "I'm sure they wouldn't be shocked by it, and it's not like anyone's ever going to find out from me."

"I know, just thinking out loud," Kasios said. "Things, uh, things aren't going so well with the whole Tuxedo Mask thing, so my hand's being forced."

Endymion reached up to rub at the side of his neck, feigning casual indifference. "Oh, well, that's too bad...must be kind of strange for you, huh? Down here, on Earth, nobody forces your hand into anything."

"Mm," Kasios grunted. "And it's the worst, when you know it's not even going to work, but you still have to do it. And on top of it, you know that doing it is just going to hurt you."

Endymion cracked a small grin. "Dad, what are they making you do? If it's so obvious that it's bad, how can they even want you to do it?"

"Oh…" he slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'm altering Earth laws regarding imperium smuggling."

Endymion's smirk fell off his face, and a clammy sensation shot into his gut.

"It's sort of a last-ditch effort to get our hands on Tuxedo Mask and his supply. Doubt it'll work, but it's all we have left."

"A-altering Earth laws?" Endymion repeated, unconsciously reaching up to the collar of his tunic.

"Yeah, t-the problem was, we weren't able to seriously threaten any of the dealers, because they were carrying such small amounts they'd get released within a couple cycles at most. That purity level really did change the game." He shrugged. "So now, we're cracking down hard. Minimum five year sentence for possession of any amount of unregulated imperium."

Endymion's mouth fell open every so slightly, and he quickly looked out the window to his right. "F-five years?! Wow, that's...wow. What was it before?"

"If it was just possession of a tiny amount, usually just ten days. Maybe fifteen. Depends on the lawyer." He swallowed. "And given that Tuxedo Mask is the only one with the ninety-nine percent purity, his product is easy to identify on sight, so that'll be good."

Endymion managed to force a frozen smile onto his face, turning back to look at his dad. "Wow, that'll definitely work, then! I mean, w-who wants to spend five years in prison? They'll be falling all over themselves to give up information!"

Kasios nodded rapidly. "Maybe. Gonna ruin a lot of lives that, quite frankly, don't deserve it." He put his hands up on his chest. "I'm as pro-regulation as it gets, believe me. Might be less than a hundred people in the galaxy more hardline than me. And even I'm not into breaking up families over trivial offenses. That kind of thing is why the King and Queen of Venus are so unpopular right now."

"Y-yeah, that...makes sense," Endymion said uneasily, reaching up to run his hand quickly over his forehead.

"Plus, this Tuxedo Mask is probably smart enough to just pull all of his dealers off the street as soon as the laws change." He hissed a bit. "So, as much as I hate it, I have to pull another dirty trick."

Endymion was silent, holding his hands behind his back, fingers fidgeting around rapidly.

"I've never done this before, but it's the only shot I have at maybe getting something out of this. I'm having the law changed and enforced at exactly the same time as it's been announced. Going to happen later today."

Endymion's mouth went dry. "T-the same time?"

"Yup," Kasios said. "Don't feel great about it, but this way, maybe we can actually get a few people on serious charges before they get pulled out. Gotta take a day or two to pull over a thousand imperium dealers off the street, right? If we could just nail two or three of them, maybe we'd have enough to lead us to the top of the chain." He chewed on the inside of his left cheek. "Feel dirty doing it, but it's better than going through all of this for nothing."

Endymion nodded. "Wow, uh...y-yeah," he said stiffly. "I think that...that people will understand." He reached up and patted his father on the back. "I, uh, I'm gonna run off, I think I just made a decision."

"Oh yeah?" Kasios looked up as Endymion began to slowly retreat, walking backwards down the hall. "What?"

"Uh, stars!" Endymion said quickly. "Star-themed mobile, for the crib!" He spun around, striding off down the hall, leaving his father to stand there and shoot the back of his head an odd look.

"Jeez," Kasios mumbled as Endymion disappeared around the corner. "I knew he wasn't assertive, but...man."

"

The disc on Kunzite's waist buzzed, and the white-haired general could not help but give a little groan. He was seated on the plush couch in the lounging area of the break room, Nephrite sitting on the armrest of the fat chair across from it.

"You going to get that?" Nephrite asked, Kunzite putting off on grabbing it as it buzzed away by his hip.

Kunzite nodded, finally grabbing the device and lifting it to his mouth, eyes taking the briefest of glances to see that it was indeed the Prince hailing him. "Your Majesty?"

"Please tell me you haven't already started!"

Kunzite flinched a bit at Endymion's panicked, yet quiet, outburst.

"Kunzite?"

"U-uh, no, no, you said wait for your order," Kunzite answered, glancing over at Nephrite.

"

"Okay, okay, things have changed, new plan!" Endymion paced around the tiled, white room, the sink to his left having been turned on full blast, a loud stream of cold water being spilled into a basin and running down into a drain. "New plan, get everyone off the streets, get all the imperium back into safehouses! All of it! Immediately!" His voice was hushed, but conveyed obvious urgency.

"...back into safehouses?"

Endymion stuck his index finger into the water spout, catching a bit of the cold water and then rubbing it on his forehead. "My father is changing the laws, zero-tolerance policy on imperium smuggling, five years minimum for possession! It's happening later today, we need all of our dealers and cutters off the street and all the product out of their hands, immediately!"

"

Kunzite jumped to his feet, Nephrite doing the same. "Understood, Your Highness, I have Nephrite right here with me, we'll start on that right now." He replaced the communicator on his belt and the two large men began to hurriedly jog out of the break room. "How fast can we spread a message to your network?" Kunzite asked, the two of them marching down a long grey hallway after emerging through a steel door.

Nephrite grumbled. "This network wasn't exactly constructed to allow instantaneous message delivery to everyone, admittedly."

"Well, we're about to have a pretty definitive speed test," Kunzite said.

"

Cyprine's nose wrinkled a bit at the mildly-unpleasant stench of the public outdoor park, casting a disdainful look at a small rabbit speeding by through the bushes in front of her. No doubt it was the animals she could place a decent portion of the blame on for the smell.

The evening was just settling in, taking the place of the afternoon, the park having already seen their busiest time pass. The blue-haired woman found it to be satisfactory for her needs right now, sparsely populated enough to allow for a short meeting with her twin. All that was missing was the twin.

She spread her arms out to either side of her, resting them on top of the backrest of the bench, thinking about what she was going to say. It had been a hectic run of a couple days, having to oversee the withdrawal of tens of thousands of imperium dealers and the safe impounding of massive quantities of product, having been forced into a hasty retreat in light of the new smuggling laws. There had been a few troublesome arrests, to be sure, and it had been a very expensive ordeal, but it seemed as if any serious danger had been averted.

"Well, at least you're not in prison right now."

Cyprine looked up over her left shoulder, seeing Ptilol standing there, a look of bemusement on her face.

"So we can count our blessings there," the red-haired counterpart of Cyprine continued. "How was the shutdown?"

"Hectic," Cyprine mumbled. "And not without some degree of loss. But we'll survive."

Ptilol came up from behind the bench and took a seat on the left side of it. "Define degree of loss."

"Some dealers got arrested and are looking at more than a decade on _The Savery_ ," Cyprine explained. "They don't really know very much of anything to trade with, but we'll definitely have to pay their families off. We lost a decent amount of product as well. It's a blow, that's for sure."

Ptilol nodded, watching a young couple walk a dog along the path in front of them, pausing to allow them to go by.

"But, we got what we wanted, that's the good news. Maybe it wasn't because of anything we did, but Tuxedo Mask has withdrawn his network. And he'll be just as unable to sell on Earth as we are." Cyprine shifted a bit on the wooden seat. "So, what do we do now?"

"The laws were changed two days ago?" Ptilol asked.

"That's right." Cyprine nodded.

"Okay. Wait eight days before you do anything. If we approach him too soon, it'll be obvious that we were the ones trying to disrupt him. But wait too long and he'll probably start making headway on finding distribution on other planets, and we don't want that." Ptilol got back to her feet. "So after eight days, arrange for him to receive a message, through someone who was working for him. Presumably, they'll still be loyal to him."

Cyprine stood up. "Message?"

"Tell him that a veteran of black market imperium smuggling is interested in acquiring his product, and that he wishes to negotiate in-person. The shipyard for long-term parking near Heracles, two days after the message is sent." Ptilol thought for a moment. "Say that he's buying in bulk, and has enough capital for large purchases."

"So we _are_ working with him," Cyprine said snidely, glancing down at the ground at her feet.

"We're buying from him, it's not the same thing," Ptilol countered. "Theoretically. I don't know what the boss is actually planning, none of us do."

"I don't like it," Cyprine muttered quietly. "Who is this guy, even? How can we possibly trust him?"

"How should I know?" Ptilol asked, shrugging. "All I know is that the boss knows a lot more about this than any of us. Or really, anyone else in the galaxy. For all we know, he's planning on leaving Tuxedo Mask in a hole in the middle of the desert as soon as he gets his product. Your focus should be on following orders, and trusting the boss."

"I trust the boss," Cyprine protested, the two sisters beginning to trek out of the park, following the concrete path. "It's this Tuxedo Mask I don't trust," she added bitterly. "Mimete trusted him, and look where she ended up."


	23. Becoming the Mask

Chapter 23: Becoming the Mask

A/N: Thank you so much to all of my readers for helping this fanfiction reach 4,000 total views! Your continued support is deeply appreciated!

"

Princess Serenity looked down at the carpeted floor in the back left corner of Endymion's bedroom, following the Prince's pointing finger. He was standing behind her, emphatically indicating the spot on the ground.

"Doesn't look any different to me," Serenity said, bending down a bit at the waist and looking down hard.

"That's the idea," Endymion said, stepping past her and going over to the corner of the room. He ran his slippered foot in a line down a short portion of the carpet, and then sharply thumped his heel on a spot right by the line he had drawn.

A square section of the carpet popped up, the center right where Endymion had pressed his heel. Endymion kneeled down and lifted the panel up by the carpet fibers, moving it over to the side to reveal a hatch down into a small silver room, with a few ladder rungs leading down into it. Serenity bent down, looking down through the hole. Other than the raised portion on the left side which functioned as a bench-like seat with a few pillows and blankets on top of it, there was nothing really to speak of. It looked big enough for maybe three adult-sized people,

"Whoever designed this palace was...well, I'm not sure if the right word is paranoid, creative, or cautious, but there are hidden rooms and tunnels everywhere." Endymion placed his right foot down on the top rung of the little steps built into the sidewall of the room, descending down into the silver panic room.

"Is there anything down there?" Serenity asked, placing her right bare foot on the top rung after Endymion had finished his descent, delicately lowering herself down. Endymion grabbed her hips as she dropped down into the small room, setting her down on the cold steel floor.

"Little retractable shelf over on the left side, rations for a few days. Emergency beacon as well." Endymion stood up on the elevated side of the room, his tall frame able to reach back up into his bedroom. He grabbed the hatch and dragged it back into place, grabbing a little handle on the bottom of it and yanking it down hard. With a firm little snap, it was locked back into the hole, covering it perfectly, sending the chamber into pitch-blackness. After a beat, a dim little light flickered on from the wall behind the seat, just enough to allow the two royals to see each other.

"The seal is airtight. This room has its own independent air supply, can last up to three days with three people. Plus, the steel is infused with redium, so people inside won't show up on heat scans." He reached over to a little finger hold in the left wall and pulled, extending a small shelf out from it. A stack of paper packets and a glass bottle full of blue pills, as well as a cube with a switch and button on the top face, were collected there. "The beacon will penetrate the redium, so it still works despite that seal."

"Have to use it often?" Serenity asked, picking up one of the packets and holding it up by the light.

"I've hidden down here a few times," Endymion admitted. "Even the maids don't know about it. Actually, only members of the Earth royal family and the generals are supposed to know about the secret rooms and passages."

"And yet, here I am," Serenity mused, replacing the packet in the wall shelf. "What's that supposed to mean?" She turned back to the Prince. "And please, don't even _think_ about trying to propose to me down here."

"No, no, not that," Endymion assured her, pushing the shelf back into the wall. "I just trust you, what can I say? And, I don't think I'm overstepping things if I say that you _will_ be a member of the Earth royal family sooner rather than later."

She gave a bashful little grin, leaning up against Endymion's chest. "I'll hold you to that."

Endymion embraced her with his long arms, bending down a bit to kiss her forehead. She went up on her tiptoes after he pulled away, allowing him to get down low enough to brush his lips against hers. He pulled her in tighter, then began to slowly lean into her, pushing her down towards the elevated seat portion of the tiny chamber.

She allowed him to catch her weight and set her down on top of the mess of blankets and pillows, and felt his fingers fumbling with her blouse. She gave a sensual little moan, but then her eyes suddenly went wide and she reached her right hand up and pressed it against Endymion's forehead. He pulled back, giving her a quizzical look.

"I-I just remembered," she stammered. "I haven't taken my pill yet, and…" she gave an awkward little point downward, towards her waist. "I think I'm...well, you know."

"O-oh," Endymion said, a little flustered. "Okay, where are they? In your purse or something?" He mounted his right foot up onto the bottom rung of the little ladder.

"I don't have a purse," Serenity said meekly. "They're back in my room, in the Moon Palace."

The two lovers blinked at each other for a few beats.

"It really wouldn't take that long for me to get there and back," she suggested.

"W-well, whatever, it'll be fine," Endymion said, sitting down on the bench-style seat next to his girlfriend. "I'll pull out, it won't be a problem. Don't leave, it'll ruin the mood."

"I...I don't know," Serenity mumbled. "Pulling out isn't very reliable, is it?"

"It'll be fine," Endymion enthused. "Come on, what are the odds?" He gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Let's just do it, I'll make sure to pull out."

She blinked a couple times, biting her lower lip. "You sure?"

"Serenity, sweetie, come on, you've got me all worked up here, are we really going to get tied up in worrying about things that aren't even going to happen?" He rubbed his fingers along the top of her head. "We're fine!"

Serenity sighed, but nodded. "O-okay, okay! You're right, nothing to worry about!"

With that, she wormed her way up into a more upright position and turned herself around, locking lips with the Crown Prince again, again feeling his fingers go to work on her casual wear.

"

Endymion had his fingers criss-crossed together in front of him, leaning back in the cushioned chair, looking back and forth between his three generals seated before him. Kunzite to his left, Nephrite to his right, and Zoisite across from him. The little circle of men were all seated around a small slip of paper, on a small table, with a few lines of cursive writing on it.

Endymion sighed out of his nostrils, sitting up to lean forward a bit. "How did this person know how to contact us?"

"Wasn't hard if they were paying attention," Nephrite replied. "All he had to do was identify someone who was working for us as a dealer, track them down, and tell them to pass it up the chain."

"Sounds too good to be true," Endymion muttered, rubbing at the spot between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. "I mean, I'd love to believe it, of course, but him just coming to us like this, offering us everything we need right now, I can't help but wonder." He blinked a couple times. "If someone comes up to you offering to sell you a dragon egg, it should at least run through your mind that dragons are supposed to have been extinct for tens of thousands of years before you buy it."

"Unlike dragons, long-time imperium smugglers with large networks do actually exist," Kunzite reasoned. "And it makes sense that they'd pursue our product, there's nothing else in the galaxy even close to it. I'm not saying it's completely trustworthy, but it's believable."

Endymion nodded. "Let's talk options. Obviously, we can't sell on the streets, to people. Not with these new laws. But we might be able to sell to corporations, to organized crime outfits, where the entire exchange can happen in private."

"We don't have those connections. Not enough of them, anyway, we were just starting to make a little headway selling to organized crime operations when the laws were altered. Those kinds of entities aren't going to just trust us, especially not after the crackdown. We _could_ try to develop ongoing agreements with corporations, but it would be very slow. The plan was to try to develop those kinds of relationships through the street operation, and that's been interrupted now." Kunzite steepled his hands together in front of him. "It's not viable, and likely wouldn't be for a long time."

"Plus, do we really want to be assisting criminal organizations on Earth, the planet that you stand to inherit?" Zoisite asked.

"Alright," Endymion said, leaning back. "What would we be looking at in order to establish some sort of infrastructure on other planets? The agency doesn't have the same pull on Jupiter, or Uranus, or Neptune, it'll be much harder for them to change the laws there."

"It's not feasible," Nephrite replied. "I can't just relocate part of my spy network to another planet. Part of their value is their familiarity with their surroundings, and the fact that they've been part of the communities for years."

"Okay," Endymion grunted. "Nobody's saying anything about displacing your spies. But if we could maybe grow a distribution network _on_ those planets, using people who already live there, maybe that could be sustainable."

"It would take years," Zoisite countered. "It took Nephrite years to grow his spy network to a thousand members, and he's not asking people to do anything illegal."

"Your Highness," Kunzite said, sitting up, looking over at his charge. "I think there's value in distancing ourselves from the product. Running our own street-level operation, it leaves us in a vulnerable state. If we went through another dealer network, their problems would be none of our concern. Arrests, theft, turf wars, we wouldn't even have to think about those things. We hand over the imperium, get paid, and that's that."

Endymion tightly crossed his arms over his chest, forehead tightening.

"I know it's less money," Kunzite acknowledged. "But it might be worth it if we're spared the headache of managing thousands of dealers on a day-to-day basis. We had a good thing for a few cycles, we did very well given our lack of experience, and we made nearly two billion creds, but it's tough to deny that there were bumps. Bumps that we were able to get over, but there were close calls that could easily derailed everything, and the next bump could easily be the one. Ultimately...none of us are criminals. We just don't have experience in these kinds of things. Maybe someone who's been in this business for a long time is just what we need."

"Our last experience with an imperium smuggling veteran went less-than-well," Endymion pointed out.

"Yes, there's no doubt that we need a professional. Not some street thug who thinks a pile of corpses is the solution to all problems." Kunzite got to his feet. "We need someone who looks at this as nothing but money. And maybe, just maybe, this person is capable of doing that."

Endymion blinked a few times, putting his hands together underneath his chin.

"Your Highness, I'll carefully vet this proposed meeting place and take every precaution. We should at least try. This individual explicitly said they're looking to buy in bulk, we might be able to offload a hundred libras! Two hundred! Think about how nice it would be to get that amount off our hands all at once, to get that large sum of creds with a single transaction! We have nearly sixteen hundred libras of highly illegal, extremely valuable imperium, and we can't sell it right now. If we find someone who can, then it's worth taking less money."

Endymion finally gave a curt little nod. "We'll give this person a chance. But I want to meet him, in person. I make the decision."

Kunzite nodded. "Very well. Maybe we can use the opportunity to rework your disguise."

"

Kunzite shot the Prince a tired look, unable to stop himself from disdainfully regarding the outfit that he had insisted on wearing to the meet. Despite Kunzite's insistence, Endymion had stuck by his original alter ego. He remained the spitting image of a highly-eccentric, overdressed man, top hat, cape, and mask making him comical to behold.

The two were standing in the main hub of a Class A starship, just enough seating for six. The windows of the ship had all been covered by thick panes of steel, thus ensuring the unimpeachable protection from virtually all outside forces. An experimental design, this particular little ship could withstand impacts and explosions that would have easily shredded a typical Class A ten times over. A quality well-worth the tradeoff of increased weight and lower speed, not to mention high price. _The Carapace_ seemed likely to be the first of many.

The ship had been parked into a little slot on a large, long apparatus of concrete and steel, the parking grooves copied all the way down on either side, each one inviting another Class A with the chance at a rest. Every few slots, a ship could be found parked. This particular parking dock was right next to a major spaceport, meaning that it provided long-term housing for ships being left behind by families going on vacations, or salesmen on extended business trips, or whoever else required a larger ship capable of long-distance jumps. It was nice and public, without being out in the open.

The proposed meeting time was mere secundas away, and the two young men were observing the surrounding area outside through an assortment of tiny cameras placed on the ship's exterior, flipping around between screens, looking for any sign of their prospective distributor.

"This really was a good opportunity for you to start using a less conspicuous and attention-drawing disguise," Kunzite grumbled. His own subtle getup consisting of a short blonde wig, jaw inserts, and glasses was successful in completely hiding his true identity, making him look absolutely unrecognizable.

"It's the brand now," Endymion said. "We've been over this, Tuxedo Mask is associated with our product."

"That's really not a good reason to keep it," Kunzite insisted quietly. "At the very least, the cape—"

"Can you drop it? It's fine, it works, no problems with it. The cape plays, alright?" Endymion said, observing two hooded figures approaching the ship from the front side on a small handheld screen that he was holding. "Alright, I think we might have our man."

"He's punctual, then," Kunzite commented, going over to the exit hatch on the right side of the ship's barren interior and grabbing a red lever right next to it. "Are you sure it's him?"

Endymion waited a moment, watching the two come up right by the ship's hull and stop. Both of them had heavy cloaks covering their torsos and hoods casting their faces in shadow, so he couldn't yet distinguish either of them other than that one was significantly taller than the other. "They seem to be here for a reason."

"Stay here, and close the hatch after I'm out." Kunzite pulled back on the lever, releasing the latch on the exit door and popping it open. A rickety steel ladder extended down a couple steps to the ground, and Kunzite eschewed using it in favor of simply dropping down the short distance to the ground. As soon as his boots contacted the asphalt below, the door sealed shut above him, ladder retracting back into the ship's thick hull. He looked back and forth between the hooded figures, a couple tense moments ticking by as the three stared each other down.

"Can I help you two?" Kunzite asked.

Both reached their hands up to pull back on their hoods, revealing their faces to Kunzite. The taller one, in a mild surprise, ended up being a woman. Tall and thin, with green hair done up in a complex series of buns and loose strands, with a few thin black bands wrapped around her forehead. Large pink earrings hung from her ears.

But Kunzite's focus, as well as shock, was on the second individual. This one was a man, pale skin, moderately-short white hair, a sharp, pointed chin, and round, thickly-rimmed glasses over his eyes. He gave an amicable little smile over at the Prince's guardian.

"

Endymion, eyes glued to the screen in his hands, watching the initial interaction between Kunzite and the two newcomers, stared in shock at the man as he revealed himself. He blinked, mouth hanging open, giving the screen a little flick with his left index finger as if he could suddenly get the camera to start showing him a more believable sight. It didn't.

"What the…" he muttered under his breath.

"

"I think you're in the wrong place, sir," Kunzite said over at the white-haired man.

"I'm right where I want to be," he replied, still giving a pleasant smile, his voice lightly accented and his words flowing together satisfyingly.

"I don't think so," Kunzite insisted.

"I am here to conduct business," he continued. "You're here for the same, aren't you?"

"I'm sure this is an odd coincidence," Kunzite said, looking up towards the closed hatch on the bottom side of the ship. "We should part ways, sir."

"That would not be good for either of us," the man insisted. "Nor for the man you're working for, who I assume is up inside the ship. There are very, very few people in this galaxy who can afford large quantities of your product."

Kunzite slowly leveled his gaze back at the man, having been preparing to wave up towards the ship's hatch. Quickly, he regained his quasi-regal composure, straightening up.

"My apologies, sir. You just bear a striking resemblance to—"

"Well, there's a reason for that," he said, still casually smiling over at the imposing bodyguard.

Kunzite wasn't quite sure how to respond to this, so he simply stood there, eyes flickering back and forth between the two, confused all over again.

"Now, we can enter your ship?" he asked. "We're out in the open here, I'd prefer to be in a secure location for the duration of this meeting."

Kunzite thought for about two beats, then looked over at the tall woman to the man's right. "There's a F-90 handgun on your right hip, five throwing knives along the front of your waist, a retractable garrote on your right wrist, and a snub-nose Hittite on your left ankle." He pulled a tightly rolled-up burlap sack out from the inside of his heavy brown jacket, tossing it onto the ground at her feet. "Once I see all of those things in that bag, we can go up."

The man gave a quick glance and nod over towards his companion, who quickly reached down to her right hip to remove a black firearm from underneath her cloak.

"

"What's the meaning of this?" Endymion asked as Kunzite's head appeared just outside the open hatch, pulling himself back inside the ship.

"They're the ones who want to meet us," Kunzite said quietly as he moved to the side, allowing the green-haired woman and white-haired man to enter. Endymion just gave a mildly-frightened stare as the two came on board the ship. Kunzite shuffled over next to his Prince, ready to act instantly if the meeting made any sort of undesired turn.

"Fascinating design," the man stated, glancing about the interior of the ship. "No doubt meant for extreme defense?"

Endymion tilted his head slightly, unwilling to let his guard down in the slightest despite the man's light, friendly tone.

"Ah, my apologies." He turned towards the disguised Prince. "Tuxedo Mask, my name is Cronus, and my companion here is Tellu."

"Cronus," Endymion repeated, crossing his arms over his chest. " _The_ Cronus?"

He smiled. "I suppose that I'm probably the most well-known Cronus in the galaxy right now, yes. In any case, I wish to do business. I think we can make each other very happy by working together."

"You...you want to do business with me?" Endymion said slowly.

"I've seen your product. It's exquisite, paradigm-shifting, nothing else in the galaxy even close to it," he explained. "And I have just the infrastructure to capitalize on your product."

"H-hold on," Endymion said, putting his open palm out towards the older man. "You're Cronus of Saturn? Cronus, the medical science genius and pharmaceutical tycoon, developer and producer of cutting-edge medications, majority owner of hundreds of thousands of medicine stores across the galaxy, one of the wealthiest men in the galaxy, _that_ Cronus?"

He nodded. "Yes, that's me."

"And you...you want to do business with me? You, wealthy beyond measure from legitimate business, have the infrastructure to distribute my product and the willingness to take on that risk?" He blinked a few times, taking an unconscious step away from the two. "That's what I'm to believe?"

"It's the truth," Cronus said simply. "I have been involved in imperium smuggling for nearly ten years now, almost as long as I have been running Galen Laboratories, and as long as I have been the majority owner of Soranus Pharmaceuticals." He folded his hands together in front of his chest. "Now, Mister Mask, the question I have for you is, do you want to do business with me?"

"Wait wait wait," Endymion insisted. "We've got a lot more to—"

"Or would it be more appropriate if I called you by your actual name?" Cronus asked. "Prince Endymion."

Endymion froze, mouth open, stopping mid-sentence to absorb that particular proclamation. His abject shock was obvious, even with the benefit of the face mask, so Kunzite's own nonplussed reaction was rendered worthless.

"And you're, no doubt, his trusted general and guardian Kunzite?" Cronus added, looking over at the disguised general. Kunzite again had no reaction, even though the game was already up.

"Interesting accusation," Endymion said, trying to reset himself.

"Not really an accusation," Cronus clarified. "More of an invitation to take that costume off, if you'd like." He paused for a beat. "Or keep it on. Up to you." He paused. "Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, by the way."

Kunzite slowly turned to his left, staring over at the Prince with a hard glare. Slowly, with a rather annoyed scowl on his face, Endymion reached up, grabbing the edge of his face mask and pulling it up over his head, removing the top hat with the same motion.

"So." Endymion swallowed down, dropping the mask to the floor by his feet. "Is this blackmail, then?"

"Not at all," Cronus assured him. "I investigate everyone who I consider doing business with. Besides, hardly any incentive for me to blackmail, when you know about me as well. In fact, I think we might both have quite a bit in common. We are both very powerful men who seek to obtain even more power within the criminal underworld."

Endymion blinked a few times, glancing over towards Kunzite, as if looking for advice and guidance.

"Now, can we talk business?" Cronus asked. "That's why I'm here, and I think it's why you're here. I assure you, nobody else in the galaxy has a distribution network anywhere close to as large, diverse, and experienced as mine. And if I may sing my own praises, nobody has been in this business nearly as long as I have without getting caught." He blinked over at Endymion and Kunzite. "How much product do you have on hand right now?"

Endymion gave Kunzite a resigned shrug, acting as a prompt for the loyal guardian.

"Fifteen hundred and eighty-seven libras," Kunzite answered. "Refined and ready for use. All of it between ninety-nine percent and ninety-nine point one percent pure."

"Wonderful," Cronus said with a broad, inviting smile. "I'll take it all."

"He said libras, not uncias," Endymion said.

"I heard him," Cronus countered easily. "Fifteen hundred and eighty-seven libras, I will take it all."

Endymion was slightly taken aback, recoiling his head slightly. He quickly gave his head a shake to regain his composure. "I'm only willing to take money up front. No consignment deals."

"Just short of sixteen hundred libras, let's say…" Cronus stared down at the floor for a few beats. "One point seven billion creds. Call it a tiny discount for the bulk purchase. Is that acceptable to you?"

Endymion flinched slightly, glancing over at his guardian. "W-when?" he managed to ask.

"Tomorrow?" Cronus suggested. "Would that be acceptable?"

Endymion tilted his head slightly. "You can get that kind of money together that quickly?"

"Your Highness, you'll have your money. All of it. Up front." Cronus nodded. "The question is, can you get your product together by tomorrow?"

The Prince held his tongue at this question, opting instead to stare over at Kunzite. The general nodded.

Cronus spread his hands to his sides slightly. "Then do we have a deal? Say we meet tomorrow, out in space?" He reached inside his cloak, getting Kunzite's hand to drop to his waist, but he simply slowly pulled out a small slip of paper. "Coordinates, um—"

"Eight thousand six hundred and twenty-four point fifty-two, twenty-five thousand one hundred and ninety-five point twelve, nine hundred ninety four point five," Kunzite interrupted. "There are your coordinates, we can meet there."

With a short pause, Cronus replaced the paper slip into his inside cloak pocket. "Well, you certainly came prepared," he said, looking bemused. "Very well, just let me write those down before we leave." He looked over at Endymion. "Assuming that we have a deal."

The Prince continued to stare down Cronus, but despite his best efforts to expose some sort of facade or sniff out a trick, nothing changed. He remained, perfectly playing the part of a friendly, amicable, reasonable businessman who genuinely desired nothing more than the exchange of imperium for money. Not a disguised agency officer, nor a psychotic, blood-thirsty criminal, but rather, precisely the kind of contact that the Prince needed in this business.

If something was too good to be true, it typically was. And yet, as Cronus extended his right hand out towards Endymion, offering it to him, he was finding himself ignoring that famous phrase.

He stepped forward, Kunzite moving up alongside him. Slowly, Endymion reached his own right hand out, taking Cronus's hand and shaking it.

"We have a deal," Endymion said. "Tomorrow. Imperium for money."

"

Two Class B starships tangoed through the emptiness of deep space, connected by a long black tube, which had been created by either ship extending out a docking port and locking them together. Both ships were as generic and plain as could be, black and without decals or distinctive markings. Even if someone happened across the sight of the two ships docked together, they wouldn't give it a second thought.

Inside the connected docking tube, however, was quite a sight. Crown Prince Endymion of Earth and his two largest and strongest generals stood before the black and orange steel door that served as the lone remaining barrier between one ship and the other.

"If anything starts to go against plan, you focus on getting behind us," Kunzite instructed firmly. "And if I might ask one more time, are you quite sure you don't want to just stay back in the cockpit? It's dangerous enough you being here at all."

"This is my deal, my operation, and we're about to move nearly five days worth of labor that has a street value of over three and a half billion creds," Endymion said firmly. "I am not going anywhere."

Kunzite and Nephrite both took a step forward, providing minimal cover for their charge with their large bodies. Kunzite reached forward and swiped his finger on a panel right by the steel door, and a moment later it slid back into the wall. The docking port continued on for a few more paces past where the door had been, and then expanded out into the primary chamber of the opposite ship. Cronus, this time wearing a form-fitting black vest on the top of a white undershirt, was seated right in the middle of the room on a swivelling chair.

"Welcome!" he called out, waving over towards the trio. He was flanked by Tellu on his left, and to his right was a sharply-featured woman with straight white hair that fell just past her shoulders, with an odd looking white cap on top of her head. With trepidation and caution, Nephrite and Kunzite walked forward, Prince Endymion trailing just behind and peering over their shoulders. "I trust you have the product?"

"We've got what we promised," Kunzite said sternly, emerging out into the main room of the ship and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ah, Nephrite, is it?" Cronus pointed over at the brown-haired guardian at Kunzite's side. "I've heard all about you, of course." He glanced over to his right. "Oh yes, where are my manners, this is Viluy, another assistant of mine." He turned his focus back to the two generals and prince before him. "Perhaps you two can bond over your mutual loves for chemistry, she's been acting as my imperium chemist ever since I started in this business."

"How about we see your end of the bargain?" Nephrite growled, a hint of implied menace in his tone.

Cronus, however, either ignored it or didn't pick up on it, simply turning to Tellu. The green-haired bodyguard casually tossed a brown leather sack with assorted straps constricting it tightly out onto the floor, halfway between Kunzite and Cronus. Kunzite and Nephrite both flinched back slightly, eyes on the bag. It simply laid there, inert and stationary.

"That's the money?" Endymion asked, peering up over Kunzite's shoulders at the bag, a small frown on his face. "You look light to me. Way light."

"Well, only one way to find out," Cronus replied, beckoning over towards the leather container. In response to this, Kunzite and Nephrite both threw their arms out to the sides, trying to keep Endymion safe if things devolved to violence.

"Cronus—" Kunzite said warningly, a twitch away from shifting into battle mode, mentally calculating the most efficient and effective ways to quickly kill him and his two lackeys.

"Let me help clarify things," Cronus said, getting to his feet and walking over to the bag. Kunzite had his hands up in front of his chest, ready to act, watching as the genius scientist bent down and began to tug the straps on the bag loose. After a few beats, he had the mouth of the sack open, and poured the contents out onto the floor.

Endymion gasped as a flowing little stream of pink crystals pouring out of the sack, piling up in a little mound at Cronus's feet. Most of the precious gems were tiny, the size of a pebble, but a few of them were significantly sized, one or two maybe even the size of Chibiusa's tiny baby fist.

After dumping the entire sack of pink diamonds out onto the floor, he stood back up, dropping the bag by the obscenely valuable gem pile. Maintaining his friendly smile, he nodded.

"I trust this will suffice as payment?" he asked, sounding earnest and sincere. "It was easier for me to get this together on short notice. Plus, much easier to transport."

"Holy…" Endymion choked out under his breath. Even as a Prince of a massive Kingdom, with untold wealth to his name, seeing such a large collection of rare pink diamonds all together was a sight to behold.

"This is fine, then?" Cronus asked.

Kunzite seemed to relax ever so slightly, dropping his hands back to his sides. "I'll judge that after examining and weighing them, but...yes. Payment in gemstones is perfectly fine."

Cronus motioned over to Viluy. "Might Viluy be allowed to examine your product at the same time? Just to verify that it is actually the product we were promised?"

Kunzite slowly stepped forward, moving to the pile of pink diamonds and kneeling down next to them. "Nephrite, escort her to the cargo hold, let her check the imperium." He pinched one of the little gems between his right thumb and index finger, holding it up in front of his face and staring at it.

"I'll need some time, sir," Viluy said, turning to Cronus and awaiting permission.

"I have the feeling that Kunzite will as well, so by all means." He motioned his right hand forward, and the white-haired chemist stepped around Kunzite and the diamonds, going over the burly general. Endymion moved to the side, allowing Nephrite and Viluy to walk through the docking port, back into the other ship.

"I apologize if my payment method was unexpected," Cronus said regally. "I just consider this to be preferable when dealing with such giant sums."

"No, no," Endymion said, eyes on Kunzite as he continued to closely examine diamond after diamond. "It's actually probably better for us as well. T-thank you." He wiped his hand over his forehead, glancing over at Tellu, who remained silent and stoic at Cronus's side as the pharmaceutical kingpin took his seat in the swivelling chair again.

"She doesn't say very much," Cronus admitted. "Don't worry, it's not a problem with you." He beckoned over towards another chair on the right side of the modestly-sized room. "Sit, if you'd like."

"I'm fine," Endymion said, slipping his hands into his pockets. "So...that's really what it is, huh? The biggest name in medical science by day, the biggest imperium smuggler by night?"

Cronus placed his hands on his kneecaps, nodding. "I thrive in the world of business because I see opportunities and take them. This was just an opportunity, like any other, that I recognized as lucrative."

Endymion gave a half-hearted nod. "And an opportunity to be shoved in a prison cell for the rest of your life. Meanwhile, your legal business interests print money at a rate that can hardly be calculated." He tugged at the buttoning points of his jacket. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because your product is, by far, the best and most valuable in the galaxy," he replied simply.

"No no, why are you doing any of this in the first place?" Endymion clarified. "Why are you risking imprisonment and criminal charges when you have more money than you could spend in a hundred lifetimes through legitimate means?"

Cronus's smile dropped ever so slightly, but he quickly brought it back. "Your Highness, I could ask you the exact same question."

"Maybe." Endymion absentmindedly began to mill about the ship's interior chamber, looking around. "But I asked you first."

Cronus gave a little laugh, then looked down at the floor for a few beats. The only sound in the room was Kunzite tossing one of the diamonds down to the ground, drawing a gentle little tink, before picking up another one.

"Family," he finally said, looking up at the Crown Prince. "What about you?"

Endymion pursed his lips, seemingly impressed by the answer. "The same, as it happens."

Cronus leaned back in the chair, putting his left fist into his right palm. "What better reason is there to do anything than for family? For men, what other reason even is there? What other reason would be worth considering?"

Endymion, after a moment's contemplation, managed to put an eased smile on his face. "Y-yes, I suppose that's true."

"Tell me," he began. "I'm not going to insult your intelligence by asking too many questions about your source of raw product, I harbor no illusions that I can get you to say a word about it. But it's important that I have some idea of how much you have remaining."

"A lot," Endymion said easily. "Running out will not be a concern anytime soon."

"A lot," Cronus repeated. "Could you ballpark it to...more than a hundred thousand libras?"

"More," Kunzite chimed in from down on the floor, holding a large pink diamond up close to his right eye. "Far more."

"A million?" he continued to pry. "Ten million?"

"We haven't actually counted it," Kunzite acknowledged, beginning to scoop the diamonds up carefully and place them back into the sack. "But, more than that, I feel confident of that."

Cronus's disposition seemed to brighten even more. "Wonderful!" He turned back to the Prince. "Assuming things go well with this transaction, and that I'm happy with the results, I will be in contact with you in the near future."

Endymion quickly stepped over to Cronus, no longer feeling any fear or concern about this meeting being some sort of trap or ambush. He extended his right hand out towards the wildly successful businessman.

"Then I await your contact eagerly," he said.

Cronus took his hand and shook it. "And, of course, I most certainly know where to find you."

"

"Your Highness, please, give it to me, I'll stash it someplace where nobody will find it," Kunzite pleaded, following the Crown Prince down the large, lavishly decorated hallway, eyes on the leather sack looped over Endymion's shoulder.

"It's fine," Endymion said dismissively. "I want to keep these close to me." The two men were quickly bearing down on the door to Endymion's bedroom, nestled into the left wall at the end of the hallway, just shy of the giant window in the wall that ended it.

"Endymion, there's no reason why you need to keep them with you, I promise they'll be safer with me," Kunzite continued, keeping his voice down.

"The bag is small enough to hide in my room, it's just as safe and secure in there. In fact, all things considered, my room is probably one of the most secure places in the galaxy." Endymion quickly closed the distance to his bedroom door.

"Yes, but your bedroom is not just your own!" Kunzite reminded him. "Where will you hide it? And please, don't say your closet."

Endymion placed his hand on the knob, but stopped before twisting it open. "...temporarily," he muttered. "Just for today, I'll stick it in the spillover compartment. And then tonight, when Serenity's taking a bath, I'll move it somewhere better."

Kunzite gave an annoyed grunt as Endymion opened his bedroom door and strode in, bag in tow over his shoulder.

"Wonderful timing, she just woke up," Serenity called out from the four-poster bed, laying back on it and holding Chibiusa against her chest. The tiny baby was bundled up in a blanket, as was typical, staring forward with a vacant little smile on her face. Endymion quickly walked over to his wife and daughter, Kunzite peering into the room, shielding his deep concern behind a flat expression.

"Oh, yes, she knows when daddy's coming home, doesn't she?" Endymion said playfully, reaching over and giving Chibiusa a gentle rub on her forehead with his finger. He stood back up straight and walked around the bed, heading over towards the walk-in closet on the far side of the room.

"Oh, Kunzite, you wanna say hi?" Serenity offered. The white-haired general came over to the Princesses, figuring at the very least it would distract Serenity from asking questions. As he came up to the side of the bed, however, Serenity turned to look over at her husband.

"Oh, what's in the sack?" she asked casually. Kunzite felt his stomach lurch.

Endymion glanced over his shoulder as he reached down to open the closet. "More than a billion and a half creds worth of pink diamonds."

Kunzite's eyes widened, a panicked stare cast over at the Prince, thankfully unnoticed by Serenity as she was looking over at Endymion. A few tense beats passed.

"That'd be pretty cool," Serenity said airily, looking back down towards the baby in her arms as Endymion disappeared into the closet. "Wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be cool?" she leaned in and kissed the top of Chibiusa's head. "Did you hear that? Daddy thinks he's funny. Yes he does. Yes he does!"

Kunzite's body relaxed and he closed his eyes, giving an exasperated sigh. He slowly shook his head.

"

"Oh, my," Queen Neptune said, voice sultry and refined, every syllable seemingly finding a way to accent her wealthy, privileged upbringing. "Looking more and more like a Prince every time I see you."

The regal and elegant Queen of Neptune sized up Prince Endymion, extending her finely manicured hand out towards him. Knowing how etiquette worked on Neptune, he reached forward and took her hand, bending down slightly to kiss the back of it.

"Been a few years, hasn't it?" Kasios said, standing at Queen Neptune's side as the two young adults exchanged greetings. "We should get together more often, Neptune. This kid of mine, he's changed so much since the last time you saw him. Totally different person."

A charming smile on his face, Endymion gave an amicable nod. "You might say that, yes." He was wearing his finest opera clothes, an expensive suit with dark purple trimmings.

"Mm." Neptune cast a glance to Endymion's left and right. Princess Serenity stood to his right, and his four guardians hovered a few steps behind him. "A father, now? You must be so proud."

The Galle Opera House was the most recent great architectural innovation on a planet absolutely loaded with them, a large towering building that resembled a partially-open oyster from the outside. A construct of marble and reinforced glass, with some granite mixed in, the layout of the pillars and archways calling back to a style from nearly eight hundred years ago. Lighting was accomplished via floating paper lanterns that perpetually hovered a few haplouns above everyone's heads. A fortune in jewels studded virtually everything in sight, and expensive artwork hung on the walls. It was an ode to excess and style, demanding reverence at every moment from all who were given the opportunity to be inside it.

Queen Neptune was overseeing greeting the more esteemed guests as they entered the Triton Lounge, the entrance point of the second floor of the building, where only the wealthy, famous and powerful could gain access. The various royals of the galaxy, as well as a few ultra-successful businessmen and moguls, slowly filtered up the brown marble staircase into the lounge, where several long tables of gourmet food were situated to occupy them before they were escorted to their viewing booths.

"Beautiful opera house, by the way," Kasios commented. "You outdo yourself every time I come around."

"I'll have to arrange for a performance at the Orchestra Hall at some point," Neptune said, voice lilting and clipped. "We really should mingle more than once every few years."

"Well, obviously, you need enough time between visits to put together something to show off," Kasios said. Princess Serenity came around Endymion's shoulder, reaching her right hand out to the slightly older Queen.

"It's been a few years for me too!" she said energetically. "Good to see you!"

Neptune gave a polite smile, returning the handshake. "You were a girl last we met. Now, a woman. I can tell just by looking at you." She quickly scanned her eyes over the collection of Earth visitors. "Well, I have to go greet the other guests. Feel free to eat and meet up with other attendees." With that, she walked off, practically gliding across the marble floor, bottom of her blue dress just barely dragging below.

"By the _Gods_ , I would drink her bathwater," Jadeite said quietly as Neptune sauntered away.

"Classy," Zoisite mumbled under his breath, glancing over to the right and immediately perking up. "Oh, hello!"

The other three generals and the three members of the Earth royal family turned to meet the object of Zoisite's attention. Princess Mercury, wearing a dress of a mildly darker blue than Queen Neptune, and Queen Mars, clad in red, were approaching.

"Zoisite!" Mercury called out cheerfully. "It's been awhile, things well?"

"Mercury! Mars!" Serenity squealed cheerfully, running around her husband over to the two young women, never missing an opportunity to be with her old friends.

"No complaints," Zoisite said as Mercury turned to greet the Princess of the Earth-Moon Kingdom. "Been dabbling in business, running a chain of bookstores. Growing far faster than even my boldest expectations, we're opening up some new locations soon."

"Sounds exciting," Mercury remarked. "You seven will all be sitting together, I take it?"

"Right," Kasios affirmed. "Viewing booth number five, I think it was."

"And congratulations on the child!" Queen Mars piped in, coming to rest her right hand on Serenity's left shoulder. "Perfectly healthy and well, I take it?"

"Oh, yes, she's perfect," Serenity said.

"Well, Queen Mars certainly knows an awful lot about being perfect."

The eased smile faded from Mars's face as she looked over at Jadeite, who had a devilish smirk up, putting his right hand up on his hip.

"Oh," se said flatly, giving a resigned little sigh. "You're still alive, are you?"

"You can't get rid of me that easily," Jadeite retorted playfully.

"Well, perhaps one day the universe will come to its senses and rectify that," she said, turning back to the Earth King. "Good to see you, King Kasios."

With that, she bowed and spun around to depart, Princess Mercury giving an awkward wave before following.

"Oh, yes," Jadeite muttered. "Hate to see her leave, _love_ to watch her go."

"You could have almost any woman in the entire galaxy, and you keep lusting after the ones who would never want anything to do with you," Nephrite whispered. "What's up with that?"

"Not only that, but one who would wish death upon him to his face," Zoisite added.

"Hey, you're always attracted to someone who doesn't want you, right?" Jadeite pointed out. "Well, there you have someone who not only doesn't want me, she doesn't even appreciate the fact that I exist! She wants my destruction!" He pointed his finger up at Nephrite's chin. "That's a turn on."

"Ah, she's just bitter that you left Mars after your training," Kasios said. "Don't take it personally." He slapped his son's forearms. "Alright, I'm gonna go make the rounds, you guys do whatever makes you happy and be in the booth on time." He walked off.

"I thought you were traded to Earth as part of a deal to avoid an armed conflict," Zoisite said, the half-dozen individuals moving as one over towards the nearest table of food.

"Sure." Jadeite went over to a platter of cheeses and picked up a couple of cubes with his left hand. "But they would never have given me up if I was behaving." He pointed over to his right, a golden, bejeweled goblet beginning to levitate off the right side of the table and hovering over into his hand. "You know I'm still considered one of the most powerful practitioners of psychokinesis Mars has ever seen? Kills them that I didn't fall in line and embrace the life."

He began to cause a second goblet to float in the middle of the air, and then began psychically escorting it across the room, over towards the direction that Queen Mars had gone. "Well, maybe she'll appreciate a nice olive branch."

"Yes, parlor tricks always win the women over," Kunzite remarked dryly, picking up a small plate of caviar.

"Oh, son, turn around real quick, I want you to meet someone!"

Endymion, at the voiced order of his father, slowly turned himself around, his stomach jumping up into his chest at the sight laid before him. His father was beckoning a man forward towards him. A man with white hair, moderately short, a pointed chin, and thickly-rimmed glasses. Although he was now wearing a white tuxedo-style suit with a flowered lapel on his left chest, there was no mistaking him. He recoiled back, going wide-eyed.

"Son, I don't think you've met Cronus before, but I'm sure you know of him. One of the most successful businessmen and scientists in galactic history," Kasios said cheerfully. "Truly one of the finest men who has ever lived."

Endymion opened his mouth, quickly closing it to swallow, and then finally managed to remember to force himself to act naturally. "C-Cronus, yes, I...I definitely know of you."

Cronus gave that comforting, unassuming smile again, extending his right hand out towards the Prince. "Your Majesty, I heard you have a daughter now? You must be proud."

Endymion blinked blankly at Cronus for several beats, before finally jerking his own hand forward to return the shake. "Y-yes, most definitely."

"Uh, sorry, Cronus, he's usually not this awkward," Kasios said, giving his son a bit of a curious look.

"Oh, no, I...Jadeite just said something a little shocking, I'm recovering from it," Endymion mumbled. "C-Cronus, I know of your story, it's remarkable. You're the best of us."

"Cronus is one of our biggest private donors at the agency," Kasios explained. "We know him well, and he goes above and beyond to support us."

"Just doing what any concerned citizen of this galaxy would do when given the chance," Cronus insisted. "Your father has told me that you achieved a crystal-level certification in the field of medical science during your education?"

Endymion again forced the lump in his throat down. "Y-yes, yes, medical science, I was rather fond of that field."

"Well, too bad, in a way. In another lifetime, where you weren't a Prince, perhaps you could have come work for me at the laboratory. I think you would have been fantastic." With that, he straightened back up. "If you'll excuse me, I have other contacts to make." He turned about and walked away.

"Great man," Kasios said. "Nobody even knew who he was ten years ago, just another random guy with nothing to his name. Now look at him." He patted Endymion on the shoulder. "Just thought you'd like to meet him."

The High King walked off, leaving Endymion there, a little shaken. A slightly nudge on his back caused him to look over his shoulder to find Kunzite standing there.

"Everything alright?" he whispered.

"O-oh, yeah," Endymion stammered. "I-I mean, he seemed nice."

"Didn't imply anything?" Kunzite asked.

"I don't think so," Endymion replied.

Kunzite gave a little nod. "Let's just act casual." He jerked his head over his shoulder, prompting Endymion to re-approach the table of food.

"

Endymion gritted his teeth hard and winced, gloved right hand coming down to rest on his stomach. Serenity, clinging onto his right arm from the seat next to him, looked down in mild concern.

The massive, dark main hall of the opera house was being filled with the deep baritone of a particularly gifted male singer, powerful lungs able to carry the long, demanding notes of the performance, as he stood on the center of the stage, surrounded by props to simulate the appearance of standing on a giant boat. Ordinarily, Endymion would have been appreciating the impressive performance, but an uncomfortable bubbling inside of him was taking up his focus. He fought to not make any detectable noise as he fought with the faint nausea, sitting between his wife and his father, but it seemed like the discomfort was increasing.

"You okay?" Serenity whispered lightly into Endymion's ear.

Endymion gave a silent nod, blinking down heavily, feeling sweat begin to bead on his forehead. He was dimly aware of a woman joining the performance, hitting hard on a series of high-pitched notes to contrast expertly with the man's baritone.

"Be right back," he finally muttered, standing up suddenly and quickly lurching through the seats set out for his four generals. He strided through the curtain that separated the viewing booth from the back hallway, Kunzite hot on his heels.

"Your Highness?" Kunzite asked as soon as the two were out into the hall.

"Stomach," he grunted, keeled over slightly as he stormed over towards the silver door just a dozen paces down the hall.

"Should I alert a doctor?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion shook his head. "Just gotta get it out," he said hurriedly, pressing both palms into the door and pushing it open hard. "Be right out!"

Kunzite stopped right outside the washroom door as Endymion disappeared inside, thinking for a moment before leaning his shoulder up against the wall right by the door, waiting for his charge to return.

"

Inside, Endymion quickly raced across the tiled floor, over towards the walled-off stalls on the far side of the room, just barely together enough to mentally note that the fan seemed to be quite loud. He was just about to push his way into the center stall, when he was suddenly slammed into on the right side, being forcibly pushed into the left wall.

Taken by complete surprise, Endymion was unable to fight back as he was shoved into the wall, turning to see the bizarre, shocking sight of Queen Mars being the one who was driving him against the tiled surface. After getting him off balance, Mars grabbed his left arm with her right hand, putting her left hand into his chest, and slammed him again into the barrier. As he regained his bearings, he realized that Princess Mercury was standing behind Mars, looking rather nervous as she glanced about the washroom.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Endymion quickly said. "You two are in the wrong place, what are you doing?!"

Mars ignored his statement and question, looking him straight in the eyes. "Alright, what's her name, huh?"

"W-what?!" Endymion gasped, glancing over his shoulder at Mercury. "Look, if you guys don't let me go in there right now, we're about to have a big mess!"

"The poison you took just creates the sensation of needing to vomit," Mercury explained, again twisting her head over her shoulder towards the washroom door. "You don't actually have to, it'll pass in a moment."

Endymion's jaw dropped a bit, staring over at Princess Mercury. "P-poison?!"

"I slipped it into your caviar," Mercury explained quickly.

"U-uh—"

Mars took her hand off his chest, instead grabbing his chin and forcibly twisting it so he was looking right at her. "We know you're fooling around, Prince. You're cheating on Serenity, the question is with who? That's what we're here to find out."

Endymion's expression was somewhere between abject confusion and rage, giving Mars a disgusted look. "I-I...you two are both insane, let me go right now before—"

Mars shoved his head back into the wall. Endymion could maybe have fought her off, but was cowed slightly at the thought of using physical violence on a woman, even in these circumstances, and it was understood that Queen Mars had received thorough martial arts training during her upbringing.

"I am not cheating on Serenity, so—"

"What's her name, come on!" Mars goaded. "Alright, let's go!" She stared right into his eyes. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, alright, I." She quickly looked over her shoulder at Mercury. "I. What's that?" She looked back at Endymion. "Ilona? Irene? Iris? Isadora?"

"What is wrong with you?!" he snapped. She responded by twisting his arm, making him wince in pain. "Ahh! I'm not—"

"Isabelle? Irma?" Mars continued. "Who is she, huh? Some supermodel floozy you met on Venus? No? Some mistress you've got hidden away on Earth?" She blinked a few times. "She from the Moon? Oh, wow, that's it right there, the Moon!"

Mercury again cast a panicked look at the door behind her, back at the door.

"Come on, Prince," she said, twisting his arm again. "You may as well just give it up now, what's her name?"

"Mars!" He finally managed to wrench his arm away from her iron-like grip. "I am not cheating on Serenity! There is no other woman!" He tried to move around the Queen, looking to beat a hasty retreat, but was simply pushed back into the wall by her.

Queen Mars took in a deep breath, then let it out, looking right into his face. "You know, he's got a secret, that's for sure. A big one." She glanced over at Mercury over her shoulder. "But I think he's telling the truth."

"I am!" Endymion hissed. "Now get out of my way so—"

Mars spun back around, pressing her palms into his shoulders and shoving him back. "Oh no, Prince, you've still got a secret, you're hiding something from Serenity, but what is it?"

"I." Mercury squinted, looking down at the floor, wrinkles in her face slowly unfurling. "I. I...I...wait." She blinked a few times. "I. Imperium."

Even a novice microexpression reader could have picked up on the strong reaction in Endymion's face.

"Ooh, he _really_ didn't like what you just said, Mercury," Mars said, again giving him an unfaltering stare right into his eyes. "Keep going!"

"Oh my God, I…" Mercury's mouth fell open. "Zoisite." She looked up at Endymion. "He wasn't drunk. No, you sent him down there. You ordered him to do that!"

Endymion coughed. "Mercury, I don't even know what you're—"

"Oh, no, we got him, keep going Mercury," Mars interrupted, grabbing his forearm again.

"I forced myself to not believe it," Mercury said, voice becoming thick with hurt. "I saw the book that he had grabbed, and then the agency investigating us, I...I knew, but I just forced myself to believe it was a coincidence. You sent Zoisite down there to get something for you, from that book, didn't you?"

"Yes, yes, yes," Mars said evenly. "He's panicking inside right now."

"The Moon," Mercury said, sounding almost dazed. "Zoisite waived the mine inspection on the Moon. I didn't even ask, he just offered it. I thought it was odd, but didn't want to question it, so I didn't think about it." She again stared up at Endymion. "There's imperium down there, isn't there? You found it, and you haven't told Serenity."

"I think we're hitting the target straight on," Mars said. At this point, Endymion was so obviously starting to panic under the interrogation and accusations of the two young women that anyone could have clearly figured out that his dirty secrets were being brought to the surface.

"T-that's absolutely ridiculous, listen to yourself! I—" Endymion tried to protest, but was simply bumped back into the wall by Queen Mars, silenced.

"The ninety-nine percent pure imperium. Tuxedo Mask. That's you, isn't it?" Mercury's expression still displayed absolute shock, even as she analytically went through everything, checking every single box on her way through Endymion's sea of lies. "You're selling imperium on the black market, and Serenity has no idea. You...you found it before the marriage. Before the union. And you didn't tell her."

"N...No, no! This is a big misunderstanding!" Endymion babbled. "Mercury, Mars, both of you stop and listen to—" He knew the situation was fast slipping away, and he was cycling through every single idea that he could come up with in order to get out of it. Everything was collapsing around his ears, not only his operation, but his entire life.

"I think we're done here," Mars said. "That's all the dirty laundry he's got." She pulled his hands away from his thin, tall frame. "My my, we came here to expose adultery, and look what we happened upon."

"Unbelievable," Mercury said, still aghast at the string of revelations of the last couple minutas, staring at Endymion as if he was growing a second head. "You, of all people, getting involved in all of this!" She began backing away towards the door.

"Mercury." Endymion tried to assert himself strongly by pointing emphatically over at the Princess. "You are making a big, big mistake right now. This is all just a misunderstanding."

"We'll let the agency decide that," Mars said, turning away from him and following Mercury towards the washroom door.

"Gods, how?!" Mercury muttered, giving Endymion a confused look over her shoulder. "That you would do this, get involved in this business, with your father being who he is."

The bubbling panic in Endymion's head and gut reached a fever pitch, threatening to overwhelm him completely as the two women were just beats away from leaving the room to expose his deceptions and crimes. With a shudder and a twitch of his cheek, spurred on by survival instinct, using visions of his seemingly-imminent imprisonment to motivate him, that panic was suddenly flatlined. His pale face, clearly stretched in an alarmed expression, began to flatten out. He stared over at the two, mind racing to find a way out.

"It's strange that you don't think he's in on it."

Mercury, just about to pull the door open by the steel handle, froze, fingertips grazing the bar. Slowly, she turned to look over her shoulder. "...what?"

Endymion was now faintly scowling over at the two female members of royalty, neck pulsing. His voice had dropped an octave, coming out in a controlled, yet finely-curated growl.

"It's strange," he continued. "You're assuming that I'm acting alone, as if it's not the High King who came up with the whole idea in the first place." He quickly advanced over towards the two, widening himself out slightly to make himself appear larger. "That I'm not just helping my old man out, that I'm not part of a bigger scheme."

"T-that's insane," Mercury said, stepping back from the door nonetheless. "High King Kasios is—"

"A member of the high council of the Galactic Imperium Agency? One of the most pro-regulation people in the galaxy?" Endymion gave a dangerous smirk. "Tell me, Mercury, is there a _better_ position from which to run a black market imperium operation? Can you name one?"

Mercury's mouth gaped open ever so slightly, glancing over at Mars, unable to come up with a good response.

"So by all means, you two feel free to try to convince the agency that one of their own, one of their most valued and trusted council members, is running imperium behind their backs." He menacingly rounded on Mercury, causing her to back up into the wall by the door, taking on a frightened expression. "I'm sure they could use a good laugh."

"T-they'll have to investigate," Mars countered, although even she was shaken by Endymion's sudden swing. "If the accusation comes from us, they'll have to at least—"

"It's also strange that you think that he hasn't gone through painstaking procedures to cover everything up so nothing can lead back to him." Mercury was quickly wilting under his threatening tone, the pieces falling to place in her head as Endymion was giving them to her. "That he's left so much as a shred of proof of any of this. Even if you convince the agency to take a look at him, they will find _nothing_!" He smirked dangerously. "But then, he'll know that you two know. And what do you think happens then?"

Mars swallowed down some bile that had built up in her throat, looking over at Mercury, seeking her high intellect to offer some sort of guidance and assurance of safety. She didn't offer any.

"I think he might just decide that those peace treaties have outlived their usefulness," he menaced. Mercury's cheeks tightened at this threat. "It's rather easy to drum up an excuse to go to war, I'm sure he'll have no problem with that." He glared at Mercury. "What's your standing army these days? Sixty people who took a three-day self-defense class on Jupiter during their vacations?"

Mars grabbed at Endymion's right shoulder. "Hey—"

Endymion spun about violently, shoving her hand away. "You touch me again, and you're going to have a war on your hands!" he snarled, bearing his teeth in a feral display of anger that threatened so much more. "Your song and dance and superstition won't save you, Mars! Jadeite has been combing the planet ever since we got him, finding every single potential psychic, taking them under his wing, training them, weaponizing them! We'd be prepared for anything and everything you can do! We'll rip Phobos right out of orbit and smash it down on top of your palace!" He tilted his head over at the young Queen. "That what you want your legacy to be?! First year Queen, causes the extinction of her entire population?!"

Mars slid her left foot back, unable to fight the overwhelming urge to back away from the Prince. Her face twitched as visions of his dire potential future for her planet flashed through her mind.

Endymion turned back to Mercury. "And you, you wouldn't even _get_ a war. You'd be surrendering before we broke the atmosphere. Your diamond reserves, pillaged and brought to Earth. Your scientists and scholars, shoveling horse manure in stables. Don't think we won't do it. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll be a working as a maid for some show business star in the capital city when it's all over."

Mercury managed to regain just a fraction of her composure. "J-Jupiter would _never_ let you—"

"Jupiter will be trying to beat us to the punch when they find out about the secrets you've been hoarding down in that vault!" Endymion growled, causing Mercury to startle back into the wall. "Oh yes, I know all about that, too. You think that just because Queen Jupiter is your friend, she'll be okay with Mercury keeping all that scientific knowledge about uses for the gases that they harvest a secret? All in the name of potential leverage in negotiations one day? Or how about Mercury's involvement in the assassination of King Giles of Jupiter eight hundred years ago?"

Princess Mercury gave a strangled little gasp.

"You think they might find that interesting? What do you think, huh?" He grinned.

Mercury went as pale as a ghost. "You...I...that's impossible—"

Endymion's tone became light and mocking, continuing to bear down on Mercury without actually touching her. "I'm afraid that Zoisite did far, far more than just look inside a book while he was down there."

Mercury could barely keep herself from slipping down to the floor, cowering away from the Crown Prince.

"You see, Mercury, you were just so lost in those...dreamy eyes of his, you didn't notice what he was doing with his hands," Endymion taunted. "I know _all_ of your secrets, _Akila_."

Mercury gasped again, looking absolutely appalled, body shaking in fear now.

"That's right. And I can have the entire galaxy out for your blood if I decide to share it with them. Is that what you want?" Endymion leaned in closer to the blue-haired Princess, a violent scowl on his face.

Mercury shook her head frantically, having seemingly de-aged at least a decade with how meek and fearful she appeared.

"Then do we have an understanding?" he asked her.

"I-I...I won't tell...I won't tell a-anyone," she managed to force out of her tight throat, putting her palms up and out towards Endymion. "Your Highness, I...I give you my word. I s-swear. Nobody will hear any of this from me. I'll never...n-never, breathe a word of this to anyone."

He stared her down, getting her to slide down the wall another finger length or so. "We have people everywhere, Princess. As you must realize by now, I can get my hands on anything I want. And I give you _my_ word, that if any of this leaves this washroom, I _will_ hear about it, and your Kingdom will become a territory of Earth within a cycle. Understand?"

She nodded hurriedly. "Y-yes sir," she peeped out.

Slowly, he stood back up straight, giving Mars a menacing glare. She, despite her training on keeping composed in any and all situations, was visibly shaken by the turn of events that had happened right in front of her. Her mouth hung open as she stared at the suddenly threatening Prince of Earth, who mere moments ago she had regarded as little more than a whelp to be intimidated and read like an open book.

"I-I won't say anything either," she said quickly. "Y-You're...I won't. I promise. I promise." She put her right palm out towards him, trying to calm him. "Alright?" Her other hand came up instinctively, as if protecting her face

"Why don't you stick to the spirit world and leave reality to the rest of us?" he snapped. "You do that, and we'll let you survive." His lip curled down into a nasty snarl. "Both of you, keep your noses out of other people's' business, before it gets cut off." He suddenly charged towards Mars, arms swinging heavily at his sides. "And that goes double for you, Mars! What was that thing you gave my wife?!"

Mars blinked vacantly, jaw dropping. "U-uh...I...the…"

"For the baby? Keeps her safe?" His face was just maybe a finger length away from hers, his scowl enhancing to the point where he was hardly recognizable. "You think I can't take care of my own family?!"

Of all the things in the last few minutas that had confused Mars beyond belief, this forceful question seemed to take her by surprise more than anything before.

"You think I need your help?! That I need you meddling, like I can't handle it?" He shook his head, flecks of sweat flying in every direction. " _I_ provide for my wife and daughter! I protect them, I care for them, not you, not anyone else, _me_! You get that?!"

She nodded, deciding simple agreement was preferable to trying to protest this absurd point. He backed off from her, twisting about to look at Mercury's cowering figure.

"You two keep your mouths shut, and your Kingdoms will avoid our wrath," he reminded them. "But toe the line, or there _will_ be consequences."

He started to move towards the door, when suddenly, Princess Mercury managed to gather every last bit of courage she had remaining in her body, and opened her constricted throat to speak.

"I...I have known Princess Serenity for a decade," she gasped out, getting the Prince to stop and turn to look at her. "I've been close friends with her since we were ten. I know her as well as I know almost anyone. She's…" she swallowed down hard. "She's a sweet, kind, good person. And I don't know what you've...what you've done to keep her quiet. I don't know what lies you've told to keep her placated." She inhaled deeply, then pushed out the breath hard. "But she doesn't deserve whatever you're doing to her."

Endymion tilted his head slightly to the right, neck and cheeks pulsing as the muscles within them twitched. His scowl was almost that of an angered predatory animal, so feral and aggressive that it was. He leaned in slightly towards the Princess, making her quake. " _Fuck you_ ," he growled.

Princess Mercury hadn't heard much profanity in her life. Certainly none of it had ever been directed at her before. It had a sharper effect on her that she might have thought. She gasped and recoiled the tiny bit that she could. Endymion turned away and went over to the door as a few tears started to leak down Mercury's face, grabbing the handle.

He took just a moment to compose himself, knowing that he would have to make himself presentable to Kunzite. He rubbed at his face, working the snarl out of it, and then edged the door open and slid through it.

Sure enough, his white-haired guardian was leaning up against the wall right there, Endymion quickly getting through the door and shutting it behind him so that he didn't have a chance to see the emotional carnage he had left in his wake.

"Feeling better?" Kunzite asked.

"Much better," Endymion answered, smiling faintly. "Sometimes you've just got to let it out."

Kunzite pushed himself off the wall and began marching over to the curtain that shielded the viewing booth, Endymion a step behind, a bemused smirk on his face as the extreme power rush continued to surge through his body.

"

"It was very strange," Zoisite said quietly to himself, seated in the left chair in the third row aboard _The Bastion_ as it ripped through space, closing the distance to the Earth with a speed that only a handful of other ships in the galaxy were capable of. Endymion was seated in the pilot's chair, his wife right behind him, and the four guardians situated behind her. "I had wanted to meet up with Princess Mercury after the show, discuss some things, debate some of the recent scientific theories that have come out of her planet in recent times." He shrugged. "Couldn't find her, though. It was like she left early."

"Maybe something came up," Endymion said calmly, twisting his neck slightly to glance over his shoulder, _The Bastion_ essentially piloting itself during the long jump. "She is a royal, royals can become suddenly busy at the drop of a hat."

"I was somewhat disappointed," Zoisite continued. "I'm sure there will be other opportunities, though."

"Am I detecting some jilted lover tones?" Jadeite asked playfully, giving Zoisite a cheeky grin. "Because I think I am."

Kunzite sighed. "Did we really have to let him out of his cage for the Opera?"

"I like her," Zoisite said defensively. "She's nice. And we have a lot in common."

"I'm actually not making fun of you," Jadeite said. "In fact, I'm glad you finally figured it out, took you long enough."

"What did I figure out?" Zoisite asked dryly, tone indicating that he already knew he didn't particularly want to hear it.

Jadeite put the tips of his thumbs and index fingers together, forming a rough diamond shape with the four digits. "That it's all about this, right here!"

Nephrite reached over, grabbing Jadeite's earlobe and giving it a strong yank downward.

"OWWW! Ow!" Jadeite yelped, jolting up a bit out of his seat and reaching up to swat at Nephrite's hand. The brown-haired brute let him go, leaving him to wince and grab at his ear. "Ahhhh, what the hell?!"

"The Princess is sitting right in front of you," Nephrite grumbled.

"What, like she doesn't know how this works?" Jadeite protested, gingerly rubbing his ear.

Serenity just rolled her eyes, leaning up towards Endymion's back. "Ooo, I wanna get home to Chibiusa, I hope she didn't freak out spending so much time with the midwives."

"It hasn't even been a day, I think she'll be fine," Endymion comforted her.

"

Serenity placed the small bundle of cloth with a tiny face in it into Endymion's arms, letting him take the child.

"Alright, remember, if she starts throwing a fit, give her something to chew on," Serenity said, rubbing Endymion's shoulder. "Two cycles old and already teething, your father wasn't kidding about the fast development thing."

Endymion nodded. "I've got it, don't worry. You go take your bath." He brought Chibiusa's tiny face up close to his, looking down at his daughter with a content grin.

"When I get out of the bath, she'll probably be about ready to take a nap," Serenity said, heading across the room to the bathing room door, looking up over her shoulder. "Although she keeps surprising me lately. Try to do some stuff to stimulate her mind, she's reacting well to it."

He nodded, waiting for Serenity to depart the room, standing up from the edge of the bed, still looking down at his daughter. He heard the click of the bathing room door, glanced up to make sure she was gone, and then went back to his daughter.

"Hey, Chibiusa," he said quietly. "You want to see something?" He shuffled over towards the door out into the hallway, running his finger along the knob, locking it. "You want to see what daddy did for you?"

He quickly walked over to the bathing room door and pressed his ear to it, hearing the water running, and then the little splashing sound of Serenity sliding her body into the water. Satisfied, he quickly walked all the way across the room, still holding the small infant in his arms. She was glancing about, seemingly alert and aware of her surroundings as her father moved her to the back left corner.

"Alright, here we go," Endymion said, whispering so as to not alarm the child, setting her down on the floor on her back. He went over a few paces and ran his heel down a line on the carpet, then thumped his heel down on a spot right by it, getting the hatch to pop open. After moving the hatch to the side, he went down one rung on the ladder, leaning down into the small panic room, and grabbing a leather sack on the elevated seat side. Wrapping his fingers around the strap, he lifted it up onto the floor, setting it down, and then coming back up off the ladder. He crawled over to his daughter, dragging the bag with him, and he took her tiny figure in his arms.

Chibiusa, who was mildly anxious after being left alone for a few beats, was immediately calmed on being taken in her father's arms.

"Here it is," Endymion whispered, opening the back up, reaching his hand in and grabbing a handful of the contents. He pulled it out and put his closed fist in front of Chibiusa, opening it up.

A collection of small, perfectly cut, crystal-clear pink diamonds rested in Endymion's large hand, sparkling and twinkling in the light from the wall. The shiny jewels certainly caught Chibiusa's attention, and after a moment of looking at them, she broke out into a wide smile. Her stubby arms wormed out of the blanket she was wrapped in and she began excitedly reaching over towards the diamonds, tiny stubby fingers being wiggled about as the baby was enamored by the sparkly objects.

"Oh, you like them, don't you?" Endymion said, smiling as his daughter tried to reach over and grab the tiny gems. "Oh, you wanna see a big one?" He pulled the bag over towards himself, dumping those diamonds back in and peering inside. He stuck his hand into the sack, feeling around in the little lake of tiny pink crystals, before finally finding the biggest one. He pulled it out, finding it to be about the size of Chibiusa's little fist. Slowly, he brought it over in front of him, presenting it to Chibiusa.

Sure enough, she was smitten with this one as well, even her infant mind finding appeal in it's perfectly-cut symmetry and shiny, sparkly makeup. She cooed and laughed as she reached over. Endymion let her touch it, running her tiny fingers along the diamond's surface.

"Yes, that's right," he said softly. "Daddy did this for you. He did this for you. Yes he did."


	24. Comes Forth in the Thaw

Chapter 24: Comes Forth in the Thaw

Cyprine snapped the white wooden door shut behind her, ensuring privacy for her and her boss within the pristinely clean and organized office. Given his immense status and wealth, Cronus's office up on the tenth floor of Galen Laboratories was actually fairly modest, a simple square room with a few shelves against the right wall, an oak desk, and a massive window that took up the entirety of the back wall, giving a view out into an urban landscape.

"Any positive results on Oberon?" Cronus asked as soon as the door had been closed.

"It's already been claimed," she said darkly. "Agency's already moving in on it, too late for us to do anything."

"Mm." He glanced down at the desk surface in front of him. "Well, keep chasing leads on the moons of Uranus, there seem to be a healthy number of potential imperium veins there. We need another cycle or two worth of product to tide us over, we have effectively nothing in storage."

"Already working on that." Cyprine crossed the room, putting her palms down on the surface of the desk and bending over a bit, staring at her boss. "Sir, I've tried to be patient in this matter, I truly have, but I need to understand exactly what it is we're doing here. When, exactly, are we going to be allowed to go clean up Tuxedo Mask?"

Cronus's face wrinkled, and he gave Cyprine a slightly judgemental look. "Clean up?"

Cyprine repressed an annoyed sigh at her boss. "Cronus, we got his product. We got what he had. We should get rid of him now, he should be made to answer for Mimete."

Cronus frowned, leaning back in the cushioned chair, propping his right elbow on the armrest. "Cyprine, did you miss the part where he's the Crown Prince of Earth?"

"I know who he is!" she said firmly.

"So, what are you suggesting? That we just have a Prince assassinated?" Cronus spread his arms to his sides. "You think that'd be a good idea? Risk everything I've spent the last ten years building to kill a Prince?" He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. "How do you propose we even do it?"

"We could do it," she assured him. "Just let me and my sister do it, we can make it look like an accident. Money's no trouble, we have plenty of contacts, and we're owed favors, we could get him."

He shrugged. "Maybe you could. Maybe. If you had my blessing and co-operation. Even then, it's honestly unlikely. And, to be clear, you do not have my blessing or co-operation. In fact, you have my explicit order to not go anywhere near the Prince. I've given you this order before, and it still stands. We have need of him."

"So what, we just turn the other cheek about him ratting Mimete out?!" she hissed. "Cronus, sir, I understand why we'd want to acquire as much of his product as possible, but now that we've done that, he's no longer useful to us! Mimete was one of us, and I can tell you that the others all want to see the person who caused her death in a bodybag just as much as I do!"

Cronus sighed. "Mimete was mentally unstable, paranoid, and unreliable, and it was rapidly getting worse. Prince Endymion's actions spared me the need to put her down myself, I was days away from putting a bullet in her head." He gave an incredulous look. "You know she gunned down two of her most loyal lieutenants in the street for absolutely no reason? Just out of pure paranoia, she killed two people who had been nothing but loyal to her for years! The insanity of something like that!" He shook his head. "Endymion just saved me needing to put her out of her misery."

"Yes, you!" she pointed at Cronus. "You were going to put her down! You, who took her in, had her raised, had her trained, enhanced her with abilities and traits beyond any normal human, gave her purpose in life, _you_ were going to put her down! That's the way it was supposed to be! You should have been the one to kill her, out of respect. Just because she wasn't trustworthy anymore doesn't mean we should be okay with some rat getting her wacked by agency pricks!"

"Either way, he is most certainly still useful to us," Cronus said sternly. "In fact, without him, I'm quite confident everything we're working towards will fail. In case you haven't noticed, this galaxy isn't exactly flush with sources of raw imperium for us right now, we barely have enough to keep our network running. And before long, we won't even have that. Meanwhile, we made nearly two billion creds in pure profit off of what he sold us in about six days, how are you not seeing his immense value to our operation?"

"What, you think he'll actually come and work for you?" she asked. "You just said it, he's the Prince! He just got married, just had a kid! I mean, there has to be a reason why you haven't already approached him, I thought it was because you realized that someone like that would turn you down!"

He steepled his hands in front of his face. "The child complicates things, yes. I'm waiting as long as I can afford to, he'll be more amenable to my proposal the older the child is."

She squinted in confusion. "The kid's barely two cycles old right now. No way he'll agree to spend so much time away from her anytime in the next few years. And, even ignoring that, he's the Prince of Earth! He's not going to come work for us."

"We may have to increase our planned offer," he admitted. "But I'm prepared to do that. If he declines to work for me, then we can pursue a deal for just his product and his formula. And, despite what assumptions you might make about him, for some reason, he _did_ decide to get involved in this business in the first place. Something is driving him. Maybe it's not need of money, but for some reason, he considers imperium smuggling to be a worthy use of his time."

She sighed, but finally gave the reluctant nod that she knew her boss was looking for. "Alright, we do it your way. But the day he's no longer useful to us, it's important to me, and to the others, that we get the chance to do right by Mimete. When that day comes, I'm going to remind you of that."

"I am sure you will," Cronus said, getting to his feet. "But for now, put it from your mind. There are much greater stakes in play right now." He gave her a meaningful look. "Mimete deserved better, certainly. But far more important a consideration right now is that Endymion may very well be our only point of contact with the ultra-pure product. And without that, I fear that everything I've done over the last decade, everything we've worked tirelessly on, will have all meant absolutely nothing."

"

Princess Serenity crossed her legs underneath her, grinning as Chibiusa began to purposefully crawl along the carpeted floor. As Kasios had indicated, she was advancing with tremendous speed, doing things that some babies twice her age weren't yet doing, both mentally and physically.

Wearing a pink onesie, she scooted along the floor on all fours, seemingly heading somewhere, cooing and babbling the whole way. Serenity quickly got down onto her hands and knees as well, following.

"Oh, do you have somewhere to be?" she asked playfully as the burgeoning toddler sped into the back left corner of the large bedroom. She pursued her daughter all the way over to where the walls made a corner, stopping just short as Chibiusa began to start thumping her little hands down onto a particular spot on the carpet.

Serenity's grin faded as she watched Chibiusa lightly pound down onto the ground below her, almost looking as if she did actually have a specific goal in mind. Serenity scratched at her left temple, looking rather confused.

"Really?" she muttered to herself, Chibiusa giggling and chortling as she continued beating onto that one particular area of the carpet. Serenity put her right hand up to her chin, watching her.

She went over to her daughter and gently picked her up at the waist, quickly moving her a few paces away from the spot before setting her back down. In short order, the infant crawled right back to the same spot, pushing her tiny fingers into the carpet fibers as if trying to dig down into them.

"No way," Serenity whispered, eyes widening in shock.

Suddenly, she heard the click of the bedroom door behind her. Scrambling to her feet, she bent down and picked her daughter up, taking her into her arms and turning around. Kirsten was approaching, a porcelain tea cup in her hand and a cheery smile on her face.

"And how's the little girl doing?" she asked, quickly closing the distance between her and the two Princesses and putting her finger up towards Chibiusa's chin. Chibiusa giggled and gurgled as Kirsten lightly tickled her neck.

"Oh, she's just amazing," Serenity said, absentmindedly looking over her shoulder at the back left corner of the room again. "Um, Kirsten, you've...been around a lot of babies in your time, haven't you?"

"Most certainly, Your Highness," Kirsten replied, nodding sagely.

"Well, let me ask you something," she said, struggling to find the proper way to phrase her question. "Have you ever heard of a baby...knowing where they were conceived?"

Kirsten's little grin flashed off her face at the bizarre inquiry. "Um...wh...what?"

"Instinctively, I mean," Serenity explained. "Like, they just find themselves attracted to the place where...you know...the mother and father did it? Somehow, they just know where it happened, and they find themselves interested in it? Like, they just know somehow, that that's where it happened?"

Kirsten blinked a few times. "I...I've never heard of such a thing. I'm fairly confident that that's not something that ever happens, Your Majesty."

"Oh, o-okay," Serenity said, nodding. "I was just wondering."

Kirsten swallowed down, lowering the tea cup slightly towards her waist. "Um...might I ask what made you think of asking something like that?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really, just...she was...oh, forget it." She jutted her face out towards Kirsten. "Alright, go ahead."

Putting the odd question from her mind, Kirsten lifted the tea cup up to Serenity's lips, pressing it to her mouth and tilting it back so she could quickly pour the contents into her throat.

Chibiusa, for her part, continued to happily fidget about in Serenity's arms, making all kinds of happy baby noises. Serenity looked down at her, and then glanced over her shoulder, back at the spot on the floor that had fascinated her so.

"

"So." Grandmaster Galen pointed up at the map of the solar system being projected onto the wall at the head of the long table, fully populated with council members. "We now have reports of the clear imperium on Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn, Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Tethys, Uranus, Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Portia, Halimede, Psamathe, Sao, and Neso. Not exactly the finest two cycles in the history of the agency."

Kasios sighed. "Knew it."

"How in the _world_ did Tuxedo Mask manage to build a distribution network across the entire galaxy that fast?!" Orion asked, looking wide-eyed at the map, which had little blinking red dots on almost every single planet and moon displayed.

"Oh, no chance he did that," Naxos said quickly. "He must have hooked up with established networks."

"Or an established network," Kasios said under his breath.

"So what, Tuxedo Mask arranges for Mimete to get killed, and then whoever Mimete was working for decides to work with him?" Timon said with some degree of incredulity. "Doesn't seem likely to me."

"Who knows?" Kasios tapped his fingers on the table surface. "Maybe the ringleader captured Tuxedo Mask and is forcing him to work for him. Maybe he killed him and took his product. Maybe he doesn't know that it was Tuxedo Mask who ratted out Mimete. Maybe it wasn't! So much we don't know." He scowled down forcefully.

"Meanwhile, we didn't manage so much as a single arrest related to the clear imperium after the law change on Earth," Galen continued. "It's been long enough, I think we can safely call it. This person snapped his fingers and all of his product just disappeared off Earth, instantly. Meanwhile, that woman we've got up here for life isn't saying a word, and I'm starting to question if she ever will." He shook his head. "Put it all together, and there's no doubting it, we've now got a galactic issue on our hands, and we're not exactly working on any good leads."

"I just can't understand how he managed to clear out of Earth that fast," Kasios muttered, putting his hands up behind his head. "There's just no way he should have been able to get word out that quickly, and we had our patrols tripled when I made the announcement. Just impossible that we didn't get any of his dealers."

"Well, it happened," Galen stated. "This is now the number one priority for everyone. Every single member of the high council, take note. Tracking down this Tuxedo Mask, or whoever it is who's putting the ninety-nine percent pure imperium in play, is now the top priority for all of us. Odds are good that he's either linked up with, or has been absorbed by, the interplanetary imperium kingpin that we've theorized might exist."

"Well, there's your silver lining," Jorja reasoned. "Whenever we do take this Tuxedo Mask down, we'll get to nail the biggest distributor in the galaxy at the same time." She shrugged. "Two birds with one stone."

"Birds doesn't even do it justice," Galen remarked. "With one bust, we could cut half the imperium smuggling in the galaxy out completely. Maybe more."

Kasios sighed. "Well, we've had such an _incredible_ success rate on finding this interplanetary kingpin before, I can only imagine we'll just do so much better now that he'll be making money exponentially faster."

"Nobody said it's going to be easy," Galen admitted. "In fact, it most certainly will not be. But, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow just got a lot bigger. The jackpot might very well be enough money and imperium to run the agency for centuries. If that doesn't incentivize you all to go get it, I don't know what well."

Kasios closed his eyes. "I wanted to get him before he spread across the solar system," he muttered. "I wanted to be the one to bring him in."

"Doesn't matter who brings in him," Naxos assured the High King. "All that matters is that someone does. And with all twelve of us, and all the hundreds of thousands of people working for us, focusing all of our efforts on getting him, I'm sure we will."

Kasios nodded, still frowning.

"

Isis set a small square wooden box on the floor in the middle of the tiny space station, a faint little muffled thud on contact with the metal ground. "Videos and pictures, Your Highness. You know what they say about cameras."

"They add fifteen libras?" Inanna joked, going over to the crate that Isis had just brought into the station with a small crowbar.

"They don't lie," Isis answered. Inanna popped the wooden container open, exposing a small collection of round silver discs laying in a foam bed. "You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get this. So many people, so many places, so many favors promised."

"Can't wait to see it," Inanna said, looking down at the discs. "Or, is it disgusting?"

"I was...happier before I saw them," Isis admitted. "But they're pretty definitive. However bad they say Solomon is, he's worse." She glanced across the circular room. "So, when do we move in on him?"

Princess Venus got to her feet. "We're not even close to ready to move on Solomon."

Isis's face flinched a bit. "Princess, we now have hard evidence of him engaging in sexual acts with children, what more do we need?"

"We have hard evidence of him engaging in business transactions with a man suspected to run a child sex operation, that's _very_ different," Venus countered. "Nothing he can't hire the greatest law experts in the galaxy to worm out of. And do you even think most people will care about that? Think of all the people he's helped get rich, they won't care what he does in his spare time. I already said it, we need to _bury_ this guy. From every angle. Make sure he can't just run away and hide from it. We need his illicit business dealings, his blackmail, his extortion, infidelity, murder, obstruction of justice, everything he's got." She pointed over at the collection of discs. "We come at him with that, he quietly resigns from the council and purchases a private small moon around Neptune to retire. We need to be able to take _that_ route away from him."

"Do we have time for that?" Inanna asked. "The clear stuff's been popping up almost everywhere lately. He's found a way to sell his product all across the galaxy now, isn't that a huge problem for us?"

"It doesn't matter as long as he can't sell on Venus," the Princess assured her lieutenant. "And he can't. Hasn't been a trace of the stuff over there yet. As long as we can offer him something nobody else can, we're fine."

"He's got a finger on almost every planet and moon in the solar system now," Isis pointed out. "Why would he even care if his product reaches Venus?"

Princess Venus gave an aimless little nod. "Perhaps we'll have to...apply some pressure to get him to work with us. But once we're done with Solomon, we'll be well-positioned to do just that."

Inanna grimaced. "Everything was going perfect a couple cycles ago. He had no distribution, he would have jumped at the chance to work with you. How the _hell_ did he manage to get his stuff out like this?!"

"It doesn't matter," the Princess insisted firmly. "It's actually good news, he wouldn't spread himself out like this unless he had a lot of product in reserve. Now, Anat and Astarte are currently trying to find leads on who Tuxedo Mask is so we can approach him, you two and Aphrodite need to be focusing all of your efforts to finding more dirt on Solomon. We have time, but not an infinite amount. Once we've got the pieces in place, I'm confident that I can get him to work with us, but it won't matter if those pieces aren't there."

Isis nodded. "So...any clue on who this Tuxedo Mask character could be?"

Princess Venus elegantly sat herself down in one of the chaises against the outer wall of _The Genetrix_. "Nothing solid yet." She gave a coy little smile. "Truth be told, I have a little bit of a suspicion, but...it's not based off of any actual evidence." She cocked her head. "And it's so absurd, I don't even care to voice it, lest I sound insane."

"Well, I'd certainly never accuse you of that, Your Highness," Isis said, bowing over at the Princess.

Venus glanced over at the wall to her right. "Never say never."

"

Princess Serenity hummed to herself as she ran the soft brown hair brush through her long, straightened-out blonde hair, working the tangles out of it and smoothing it. Even though she had plenty of servants who could accomplish the task of brushing her hair for her, and would probably do an even better job of it, Serenity had always found it to be rather calming a task to do herself from time to time. Her long, silky locks of hair were perhaps her most prized physical feature, something she was genuinely proud of, and taking care of it personally felt good to her.

Chibiusa, still with an abundance of energy that came to her thanks to her strong genes, merrily crawled about the bedroom floor at Serenity's feet, fingers digging into the carpet fibers as she learned more and more about her surroundings. After a few moments, she began propelling herself across the room, away from the bed, over towards the back left corner.

"Slow down, slow down," Serenity said, slowly pacing behind her daughter, not wanting to let her get too far away. It took Chibiusa a good two secundas or so to actually cross the room due to its size, but soon, she was back on that particular spot near the back left corner, looking down at the carpet, laughing to herself as she patted her hands down on it.

Princess Serenity just watched, absentmindedly running the brush down a large collection of her hair that was draped over the front of her shoulder. It was way too much to be a coincidence. Over and over again, Chibiusa would find this exact spot on the floor, and her fascination with it went beyond anything with any of her other toys. Other than her mother and father, in fact, it seemed like nothing piqued her interest quite like the patch of carpet that Serenity knew covered up the secret panic chamber.

Serenity sighed. "Really?" She looked around the giant room. Nobody else was around. Endymion was meeting with some of the local governors downstairs for a morning get-together, filling in for his father while he was up on _The Savery_. He'd be gone most of the day, in fact, for that purpose. No maids or midwives would be around for awhile, at least in terms of planned visits. "Are we really doing this?"

Chibiusa, oblivious to her mother's musings, just continued to lightly pound away at the carpet. Serenity dropped the hair brush to the floor, then bent over and picked her daughter up with both hands. She wrapped her arms underneath the small child to support her weight, and then quickly went back over to the bedside table.

"Well, I really wasn't thinking I'd have to have these kinds of conversations with you for at least a decade and a half," Serenity muttered, setting Chibiusa down on the bed and grabbing a bundle of pink straps from the table. "But, if my baby wants to go exploring, then who am I to deny her?" She began wrapping the strapped piece of equipment around Chibiusa's arms and legs, carefully positioning each little band to support her weight and safely carry her without hurting her. And then, after the small toddler was secured in, she looped the two long side bands around her shoulders, placing Chibiusa on Serenity's back, facing outward. Her legs and arms were free to fidget about, a freedom that she took full advantage of, squealing and yelping in delight as Serenity rounded the bed.

The Princess went over to the door, quickly locking it, knowing that the panic chamber was something not to be exposed to anyone outside of the family. And then, she quickly crossed the room back to the back left corner, eyeing that small square of carpet, hoping that she could remember how to open it.

After thinking for a moment, she ran her right heel down a small line in the carpet, applying firm pressure down into the floor. And then she went down on her knees, pressing her palm into a spot right by the line she had drawn.

Nothing.

"Hmm." She ran her fist down a line right next to the first one she had drawn, letting the bottom side of her hand press down into the carpet hard. Quickly, after making that line, she pressed her knuckles into a spot a bit over. With a satisfying little click, the hatch popped up. Serenity quickly grabbed the corners of the hatch and moved it over to the side.

"Alright, Chibiusa, seems like you already have an idea of it, so...something really magical happened here a year ago," she said, scratching at her forehead, feeling incredibly awkward and maybe even silly, trying to have a quasi-serious discussion with such a young child. "Um, it wasn't planned or intended, but...maybe that makes it more beautiful." She sighed. "Wow, what am I even doing? How could you have _any_ idea what happened down there?" She glanced over her shoulder. "And yet…"

She shook her head, rolling her eyes, and then bent down over the lip of the hatch. Down in the dark little chamber, a leather bag sat on the elevated seating portion of the room.

"Hm." Serenity stared down at the out-of-place bag for a moment, trying to figure out what purpose it could serve. After a moment, she crawled over to where the little rungs were, and scaled them down, Chibiusa gurgling happily all the while.

After getting down on the lower level of the little room, she began to delicately loosen the straps on her shoulders to unlatch Chibiusa from her back. She put the toddler down on the lower level after verifying that it was at least clean, and then turned her focus to the leather sack.

"Well, it would be awful boring down here as is, maybe he left some coloring books," she murmured. With a little shrug, she sat down next to the sack and began undoing the little straps keeping it closed.

Soon, she had the mouth untied and yanked it open, peering down into the sack and moving over slightly to use the light from above to see down into it. She recoiled slightly, the eased smile whipping off her face, and she gave a light gasp. After a moment of looking down into the large collection of crystals of assorted sizes, she reached down into the bag with her right hand and scooped a handful of the gems up.

She got to her feet, standing on the elevated side of the room, holding her palm out in front of her and trying to catch as much of the above light as she could. Closer examination revealed the gemstones to be pink-hued. She just watched them glitter, catching the light and sparkling in every direction, mouth hanging open ever-so-slightly.

She was snapped out of her shocked daze by a couple of anxious verbalizations beneath her, Chibiusa starting to get frustrated with being left to her own devices in an enclosed place. Quickly, Serenity closed her fist around the few little gems she had grabbed, then slid down to a seated position to pick her daughter up.

As soon as Chibiusa was up in Serenity's lap, the precocious infant quickly saw the opened bag. Like a moth to a flame, she was attracted to it and began reaching over towards it, trying to worm her way into a crawling position so she could get to it, seemingly quite excited. Serenity's left hand kept a firm grip on the back of her onesie, not wanting to allow her to get inside the bag or tip it over.

All the while, Serenity opened her right hand up again, staring down at the pink-tinted stones, eyes wide as her mind worked overtime to sort through her confusion.

She must have sat there for a good two secundas, before her face hardened into a determined little frown. She deposited the handful of gems into a thin pocket sewn into her casual tunic, reached over and cinched the bag closed, and then stood up, beginning to work on remounting the straps on Chibiusa to her back.

"

Endymion stared at himself in the small handheld mirror, examining the results of his just-finished hair trim. He ran his right hand through the thick black locks, sticking his tongue out slightly as he carefully checked for any unevenness.

"I'm conducting searches for a new laboratory," Kunzite said, the two of them standing in the middle of Kunzite's private chambers. "We need something bigger, that's certain. Class C, minimum. Maybe a D. But, getting a ship of that size to disappear without anyone asking questions about it, it's proving difficult."

"I'm confident you'll find a way," Endymion said quickly, tucking the mirror underneath his armpit and turning to his general.

"And hiding it will also be a problem. It's very important that whatever ship we use is thought to not exist by as many people as possible," Kunzite continued. "And I'm sure the agency is watching for ships disappearing after they discovered _The Qesem_. However, Your Highness, I want to say, I believe we may finally have found a permanent and viable method to continuing in this business."

Endymion tilted his head slightly. "That's more optimism than I've heard from you since I started this little project. That has to mean something."

"As soon as I find a new ship, I'll have Zoisite come assist me in synthesizing a batch, to make sure he's capable, though I'm sure he will be. We'll need bigger and better equipment, something that allows us to produce, say, seven hundred libras per batch. Moderately large tube furnaces, it's certainly possible. We'll be able to synthesize two thousand libras a day, which Cronus will purchase for two point two billion creds. Even if he only wants two thousand libras a cycle, we'll be at twenty-six billion creds a year. For approximately twenty days worth of actual work, we'll be able to make a genuine impact in the Moon's fiscal budget. All the while, Zoisite's little project is growing far faster than she could have ever anticipated, and before long we'll be able to wash money very quickly through it." He placed his hand on the Prince's shoulder. "All this to say, Your Highness...I had my doubt, I had reservations, and I questioned the logic of involving ourselves in this business, but today, I can honestly say, I think you were right."

Endymion gave a little shudder, and then a quick nod. "Well, sometimes I get lucky."

"Maybe it was perseverance more than luck," Kunzite lauded. "From now on, I think that we'll have an operation that you can just keep away from completely, invest none of your time or effort into, and do nothing but watch the money pile up. Soon, our biggest problem may be finding a place to hide our bags of pink diamonds." He gave a little smile. "Congratulations. We now have a viable, lucrative business model."

Couldn't have done it without you," Endymion pointed out, placing his hands behind his back and clasping them together. "Thank you, Kunzite." He pushed a large breath out of his chest. "I should go see Serenity, haven't seen her since I woke up. We both know how she can be about my extended absences. We should at least have dinner together."

He turned to easily stride away from his most trusted general, towards the door leading out.

"

Endymion had to resist the urge to skip down the hallway to his bedroom, practically filling up after hearing such praise from Kunzite. Less than a year ago, he was taking every opportunity to fill Endymion's little ambition with holes, and even question the Prince's sanity over his interest in it. Now, with his blessing, it seemed like he had the final bit of confirmation.

He was right. Everything that he had done to get to this point, all of the risks and the chances and the morally dubious actions had been proven justified. Through the hiccups and missteps, finally, now, they were on the precipice of something genuinely worth the effort, something that would actually help his Kingdom grow. Kunzite being willing to admit that much sealed it.

From now on, there would be no more need to disappear from the palace for extended periods, no need to come up with excuses to Serenity. Everything had been delegated out. There would be nothing left to do but count the money that came in. It was perfect. A perfect operation, with a perfect product.

He lightly hummed to himself as he approached his bedroom door, at the end of the hall, and sauntered in. From now on, his attention and focus could be entirely occupied by his wife and child, as well as his Princely duties. And despite how enamored he had become by the imperium smuggling trade in recent cycles, he had to admit, he was eager to give his loved ones the attention they deserved again.

"Oh, you don't _know_ boring until you've sat through two meals with a slew of governors," Endymion announced upon entering, putting his hands on his hips and looking around his large room upon not immediately spotting his wife or child. "Their problems just seem so small when you're in charge of an entire planet, and—"

He trailed off, as his gaze leveled down at the floor, right at the foot of his bed. A large, rectangular suitcase was laying open, a collection of Serenity's outfits piled up inside of it. Right next to it, Endymion realized as he moved into the room to get a better angle of the suitcase, was a baby carrier, a sleeping Chibiusa nestled inside of it.

He only had a few beats to consider this odd sight, before his closet door opened. His wife emerged, carrying a couple of dresses in her arms. Endymion stood there, waiting for her to offer some sort of explanation, but despite the fact that she was clearly able to see him, she said nothing.

"Um…" Endymion blinked a few times, giving an awkward grin. "Serenity, what...what are you doing?"

"I'm packing a suitcase," she responded quickly, kneeling down by the large piece of luggage and placing the two dresses into it, folding them up neatly.

Endymion fought to not laugh at the absurd image of the Princess packing her own luggage, or at the thought of what she might feel she needed to pack for. "I can see that. Are you...practicing for something?"

She shot him a withering look that knocked the smile right off his face. "I'm going to the Moon Palace," she explained, voice hushed for the sake of the sleeping Chibiusa. "Chibiusa is coming with me. So is Kirsten. I'm taking a few things with me that I might need. Over the next cycle, I'll have people sent here to collect the rest of my things, and as soon as I can arrange for housing, I'll have the rest of the midwives moved up there as well." She sighed, looking down at the full suitcase before closing it gently.

Endymion took several beats to even find words at this series of proclamations, blinking dully. "I'm sorry, _what_?!" he managed.

"I'm leaving," Serenity said, getting back to her feet after tapping a little panel on the side of the suitcase. It began to levitate a couple finger lengths in the air, a blue little glow coming from the bottom. She also tapped the handlebar of the baby carrier, causing it to begin to hover as well. "I want you out of my life, okay?" She nodded firmly. "I want you out."

Endymion stared over at his wife. "Um. Hm. W-what am I missing here, exactly?" He began to slowly approach her, wearing a mask of casual indifference over his shock. "Sweetie, this isn't the animal kingdom, where males and females go their separate ways after giving birth, what are you even talking about?"

"I don't know how I can make it any more clear than I already have," Serenity said, putting her hands on her hips. "I want you out of my life."

Endymion put his hand out towards her. "Or, maybe, hear me out here, you're completely over-reacting to something and are going to feel very silly about all this tomorrow morning." He gave her a thin little smile. "That's far more likely, so why don't you tell me—"

"Why?" She blinked, starting to scowl a bit. "You want to know why? Because you're a liar."

Endymion had a minor facial tick at this, blinking down forcefully, but quickly suppressed it. "Okay, I'm a liar. What do you think I lied about?"

"I don't even know where to start with that," Serenity said, her voice somehow managing to ooze a malice that she had probably never had before. "But I guess it all started with one time you told the truth. Two billion creds worth of pink diamonds."

Endymion rolled his eyes and gave a little laugh. "Serenity, that was—"

She plunged her hand into the small side pocket of her tunic, ripping it out and holding it out open towards him, showing a small collection of little pink crystals. Endymion's heart almost leapt out of his throat.

"Please, just don't bother trying, it doesn't matter now," she hissed. "I found these this morning. Down in the panic room, in a bag. A lot more where they came from, too."

Endymion, visibly flustered, stood there looking rather stupid for several beats, trying to find some way out of this. "I—"

"I actually gave my old tutor a call, had him come here, asked him if they were real. Made up a story about how some real ones got mixed in with fake ones that I got to make toys for Chibiusa with, and I was trying to separate them out. Quite a fiction, you would have been proud of me, lying like that." She strided over to him, slamming her palm against his chest and pulling it away, letting the diamonds drop to the floor at his feet. "He said they were real. Some of the clearest and most beautiful he had ever seen."

"Serenity, we live in a palace, we're royalty, there are jewels everywhere," Endymion managed to get out, his voice wavering with a lack of conviction. "That's hardly—"

"Two billion creds worth of diamonds kept in a secret room underneath the floor?" she questioned. "Why would that be? What would make you feel like you needed to hide them?" She slowly turned away from him. "Spent a good chunk of today thinking about that, wondering. I wondered about a lot. Your extended absences, not being willing to tell me things...survival training. Oh, survival training, do you have any idea how hard I worked to force myself to believe that one? How much effort I put into convincing myself that you were worthy of the benefit of the doubt?"

"Serenity, we've been over that," he said, forcing his voice to firm up in an attempt to take control of the conversation. "It was an unfortunate bit of tradition I had to uphold, and...alright, look, just accuse me of something already." He spread his arms to his sides. "What is it you think I've done, you think I'm sneaking away to see another woman? Are we going to do this again?"

She nodded. "I was thinking that." She waved her hand over at the closed suitcase and baby carrier and they began to slowly float towards her. She headed out onto the balcony at the back of the room, opening the glass doors out onto the high-up ledge.

"Well, alright, let's do it again," Endymion offered.

"I've often wondered, over the last few years, whenever I'm feeling a little insecure" she admitted as she shuffled over towards the glowing, shimmering tube at the end of the balcony. "Why are you with me when Princess Venus is right there, more beautiful and desirable than I could ever be?"

Endymion rattled out a sigh. "Because I don't love her, I love you, and I am not—"

"But then, the diamonds. Those, they had to be involved somehow. So then I thought, not Venus. Mercury. They've got all those diamond mines over there, they cover practically everything in them. So, earlier today, I put it together." She turned around to look at Endymion's appalled expression. "You're having an affair with Princess Mercury, and those diamonds were some sort of...gift. Maybe part of some under-the-table deal." She shrugged. "Couldn't handle being with a woman who couldn't match your intellect, needed someone who could challenge you mentally. Lines up, doesn't it?"

Endymion practically looked offended. "Serenity. We can fly over to The Holy Gobekli Temple right now, and I can go put my hands on the Gobekli Tablets, and I'll swear as many times as I need to for you to believe it. I am _not_ having an affair with Princess Mercury!"

She nodded, going over to the end of the balcony and putting her hands on the handrailing, little fingers digging into the marble. "I believe you." She grimaced, looking down at the ground far below. "I wish you were."

"W-wait," Endymion stammered. "What do you mean? What does that mean?"

She looked over her shoulder. "I tried to contact her three times this afternoon, she wouldn't answer. Finally, I left a message." She gave a disbelieving, nasty little smile. "I told her that I knew she was having an affair with my husband. Extreme, but I needed to get her attention. And it did, she got back to me after that. Audio-only, refused to turn on the hologram, not like her at all."

Endymion began to slowly wilt as he realized where the conversation was headed, expression falling.

"But, she gave me her word. No affair. And I believed her. Me and her have known each other for a long time, I don't believe she'd deny it on being confronted by it." She squinted, turning herself around to face the Prince. "But...the way she was talking, I knew that she knew something. So I asked her. I asked her, do you know what's going on with my husband?"

Endymion blinked, swallowing down hard.

"She's not nearly as good a liar as you are," Serenity said. "She started babbling something incoherent. I would have had a better shot at translating the things that Chibiusa says. Eventually, she just insisted she didn't know anything, and ended the call." She tilted her head. "Blocked my communicator, now I can't even get a call through to her. Thank you for that, by the way." She spun about and entered the glowing, translucent elevator, the suitcase and carrier following her. "Been my friend for as long as I can remember almost, and now she can't even talk to me."

Endymion hurriedly jumped into the elevator just before it closed and took off, whisking the three members of royalty and the large suitcase downward, the great speed of the lift, as well as the assorted bends and twists the course took, not felt at all within.

"Serenity, I—" he said, his voice weakening again as he started to take on the full gravity of everything that had just been told to him, still frantically trying to find some way out.

"And, just to be sure, just in case I was being even a tiny bit unfair...I called your grandfather," she said as they were whisked off in the direction of the palace garage. "Should have done that a long time ago, but it just didn't even occur to me. But I wanted to see, maybe he could verify the survival training thing. If he could, then maybe that would provide some kind of foundation I could work with." She slowly shook her head. "Take a guess, Endymion. What do you think your grandfather said when I asked him about a tradition of male heirs to the Earth throne taking extended survival training when they're a young adult? Do you think he had ever even heard of such a thing?"

Endymion took maybe half a beat to try to come up with a verbal reply, but even he knew there was no point. He looked down at his shoes, nervously shifting his weight.

"Yeah," Serenity said, finality in his voice. "I don't care to untangle all of this any more than I already have." The lift came to a sudden stop, the translucent barrier that encircled the platform sliding open, allowing access out to the massive grey concrete chamber that housed the assorted royal ships and vehicles. Serenity began purposefully walking out into this giant chamber, going across the room to where her personal shuttle rested.

"Okay, okay," Endymion said, chasing after her, jumping over the hovering suitcase and coming up behind her. "Serenity, wait."

"The very least you could do at this point is stop insulting my intelligence by denying it," Serenity said in a low whisper. "I might not be smart, but I'm not nearly as stupid as you would need me to be."

"I'm not!" Endymion insisted. "Just, wait, Serenity, please."

She continued to take longer and longer strides, closing the distance between her and her Class A shuttle, _The Lagomorpha_ , a stylized little ship with a fine silver color scheme.

"Serenity, I'm sorry, but don't do this!" Endymion begged, becoming frantic as she got closer and closer to leaving.

"There's a poison in this palace." She stopped, Endymion having to quickly plant his feet down hard to avoid crashing into her. She looked up over her shoulder. "I didn't realize how bad it was until today. And I'm through letting it contaminate me. I'm tired of all the lies. And so, Endymion, I want you out of my life. I think that covers it."

With that, she went over to the underside of her ship, hitting a large green button on a thick pillar right by it. A staircase began to unfold and extend out from the bottom of the shuttle. Serenity waited right below where it would extend out to, suitcase and carrier still floating right behind her.

Endymion, eyes wide and tone frantic, placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned slightly, pushing his hand away. "Serenity, wait." He put his hand out towards her, not touching her this time. "Look. I'll tell you everything."

He swallowed down hard, looking at the stairs uncurl out in the corner of his vision.

"Serenity, I'll tell you the truth," he promised, staring at her with wide, pleading eyes. "If you stay. If you say you'll stay. I swear I'll tell you everything. And then we can work through it from there. Just please, don't leave." His voice shook a bit. "I-I...you're right. I'm a liar, but I promise to tell you the truth from now on if you give me one more chance." He blinked down heavily. "I-If you're going to leave me, t-then...then you should at least know everything first. I'll tell you everything, just...just don't go."

She sighed, then looked up over her left shoulder at him. "Endymion. You're right. I don't know what it is you've been doing." She paused for a brief beat. "And honestly? Whatever it is...I'm afraid to know."

With that, she ripped her gaze away from him and climbed the stairs, suitcase and carrier following her up. Endymion didn't have it in him to even chase her up into the shuttle, just lazily backing away as the steps folded back into the base of the ship. Within a few beats, the ship was powering up, little streams of energy emitting from the engine exhausts. He backed away in time to avoid being hurt as the ship lifted off the docking base, then turned towards the opening steel garage door. He could only stare, still dumbfounded and shocked by everything that had just transpired, as it sped out of the garage and out into the evening sky, slowly shrinking into the distance.

He wasn't sure how long he remained there, watching the shuttle become a dot in the distance, then finally not being visible at all. He was still too stunned to have any other emotional reaction. Finally, with nothing left to watch, and the garage doors slowly easing shut, he stiffly walked away, aimlessly wandering back towards the lift to his bedroom.

"

END OF ARC TWO

A/N: If you've made it this far, congratulations, you are now done with arc two of five of my story! Thank you so much for sticking with me for this long, and I hope you are liking what you have read to this point.

So, to those of you in the know, I'm sure you have noticed that I've obviously cribbed a good portion of that last scene, and how could I not? It's really one of the most satisfying scenes in the entire show, and I wanted to use as much of it as I could as I believe it's just so damn effective and cathartic.

Now, just as with arc one, I will be taking a short break of maybe 10-14 days now that this arc is concluded. Arc three will start sometime in the few days after Valentine's Day. If you have any particular thoughts built up over recent chapters, now wouldn't be too bad of a time to leave them in a review or PM, and it would certainly be appreciated. :)

Again, thank you for getting this far, see you soon in arc three!


	25. Family Is All

START OF ARC THREE

Chapter 25: Family Is All

Cassini adjusted the shoulders of his shirt to lay evenly, and then grabbed the golden knob of the purple door before him. Before twisting it open, he paused for several beats, head bowed in thought.

Finally deciding that a little bit of additional time wasn't going to change anything, he gave the knob a twist and tug. His eyes immediately began adjusting to the heavily dimmed chamber on the other side, the light sources along the walls and ceiling having been weakened significantly.

Ironically enough, most of the table surfaces in the room had been covered in assorted lamps. Several dozen of them, of all different designs and materials, encompassing many of the most rare and valuable lamps that had ever been created. Some encrusted with diamonds and sapphires, others made entirely of gold, many with perfectly painted murals on them, all of them highly desirable. None of them, however, were turned on, thus putting the room in a state of a purple-tinged darkness.

Over in the far left corner of the room, a large four-poster bed supported the weight of a small girl with pale skin and black hair falling around her face just short of her shoulders. She was wearing a black sleeveless nightgown, and had folded her body up so that she was hugging her knees, staring down at the tops of her small bare feet. She didn't looked up as Cassini entered, nor as he approached her across the purple carpet.

"Aren't you cold, Your Highness?" Cassini asked.

She shook her head back and forth.

"Well, you should start putting on something a little more practical," he instructed. "Your physical therapy starts in about two minutas, that's hardly an appropriate outfit for exercise."

"I will," she replied simply, her voice soft and quiet.

A square-shaped black box set up at the foot of the bed released a small little puff of vapor from a nozzle on the top.

"You're taking all of your medications?" he inquired.

"It would be very difficult for me to not, with maids coming in here every five secundas to dump them down my throat," she answered. "Now, go ahead and tell me."

Cassini's head tilted to the right a bit. "Tell you what?"

"You're here early, I don't need two minutas to get dressed and go down the hallway," she said simply. "You've got something to report. Go ahead." She slowly started to slide her legs down, stretching her body out.

"Nothing gets past you," Cassini said. "Well, I have some good news—"

"Let's start with the bad news," the preteen girl requested, sliding her slim legs off the side of the bed and delicately standing up.

"Who says there's bad news?" he asked. "Maybe all I have is good news, Princess."

"We're in a planet-wide civil war, Cassini, there's _always_ bad news." She began to pace over towards the closet door in the wall behind her, moving gingerly.

"Um, well…" he grimaced. "Princess Saturn, it's really not necessary for you to expose yourself to the precise details."

She stopped, turning to look over her shoulder. "We've been over this, Cassini. If more than three hundred billion people on this planet are going to put themselves at constant risk every single moment of their lives by siding with me, then the very least I can do is hear about the ways in which they suffer on my behalf."

Cassini swallowed down a lump in his throat. "They bombed an academy. Tarvos."

Saturn's soft face hardened slightly, eyes condensing down by a tiny amount as she scowled. "Animals," she muttered under her breath.

"Four thousand dead and climbing, ten thousand injured, seven hundred million creds in damage," he rattled off. "We think that The Rings managed to sneak an explosive device inside a food dispenser machine."

She nodded, the anger lines on her face quickly clearing to be replaced by a sad little frown. "What about the Great White Spot battle?"

"Still a standoff," he replied. "Oh, and...The Rings have been distributing out some propaganda across the planet and moons in recent days. I, I suppose you would call it a...comic? A series of drawings?"

"Depicting what?" Saturn asked, again turning towards the closet and cautiously going towards it.

He sucked down a deep breath, hearing the humidifier at the foot of the bed give another puff of vapor. "You, Your Highness."

Saturn disappeared into the walk-in closet. "I'm guessing it's not of me taking the throne."

"I just wanted you to hear about it from me, and not randomly running across it elsewhere and being upset by it," Cassini explained. "It depicts you being dragged from the palace and...well, I suppose from their perspective, being held accountable for numerous crimes against humanity."

"Well, in the event that I am dragged from this palace by The Rings one day, it might be good for me to at least know what to expect," Saturn reasoned. "Might I see this comic?"

"It's rather graphic," Cassini protested. "You might be happier having not seen it."

"More graphic than an academy getting bombed?" she asked. "If you're going to tell me that it exists, you may as well let me see it as well."

Cassini sighed, but ultimately reached down towards a pouch slung towards his right hip, opening it up and pulling a small clear tablet out. He ran his fingers across the screen, activating it.

"Princess Saturn, your desire to know about the toll of this war is commendable, but there are things happening here that no twelve-year-old girl should have to hear about. It's not as if you're making decisions about the war, or need any of this information in order to figure out what to do next."

The Princess emerged from the closet, wearing a simple shirt and short leggings, with cloth shoes with rubber soles on her feet. "I could decide to just surrender and let Galileo take the throne. It's within my power to do that."

Cassini frowned. "Absolutely not. You will be doing no such thing. The throne is your birthright. Galileo and The Rings are terrorists with no claim to it. That's all there is to it."

"Well, at least the war would be over," she thought aloud. "Think about it, Cassini. We surrender the planet to The Rings, clear out the vaults, and flee to one of Jupiter's smaller moons. Live out the rest of our days there in peace, leave Galileo with the responsibility of putting back together a war-torn, destitute planet with a large chunk of its population dead and most of its resources spent. No more bloodshed. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? All of this violence, it's happening because of me. It's being done to secure the throne for me when I turn eighteen. If I decide I don't want it, then...there'd be nothing to fight over."

Cassini crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at the precocious young Princess.

"It's okay, Cassini. I would never actually do that," she assured him. "But sometimes it...it feels really good to think about it."

"The idea that the violence would just end after Galileo takes the throne is sadly misguided," Cassini said sternly. "As is the idea they would be okay with us escaping." He turned the clear tablet towards her, the middle now displaying a series of crudely painted panels. "These people hold you responsible for your Father's sins, meaning they will not be satisfied until they're able to do _this_ to you."

She blinked a few times, staring at the screen, eyes dancing from left to right to take in the intended message of the comic. Despite the rather disturbing content depicted, she kept a mask of indifference up, only the faintest whispers of sadness clouding her eyes for a brief moment.

"Well, it doesn't really look that much like me, so I question if it will have much impact," she said tersely, turning away from the tablet. "Now, I recall you saying something about good news, so please, tell me that one of the other Kingdoms is committing to intervening in this conflict on our behalf."

Cassini gave a melancholic little frown. "I'm afraid that's still not happening."

Saturn shuffled back over to the bed, sitting down on the side of it, bowing her head. "What else could possibly be considered good news right now?"

"We're still trying to secure outside assistance, but as has been said, it's just not likely to happen anytime soon," Cassini said, sighing. "Mercury has no armed forces to lend, Venus, Mars, Uranus and Neptune keep to themselves, Jupiter can barely take care of itself right now with an overwhelmed new Queen, none of those Kingdoms are going to stretch themselves to fight for us. It's not like we have anything to offer them right now for their troubles, even if they were able to."

"They can have all my lamps," Saturn muttered bitterly. "What about Earth? What's their excuse?"

He gave an uncomfortable sigh. "They seem...concerned about the optics of throwing their support behind us. Given what your Father did during his reign."

Her face wrinkled into a tiny scowl. "My father's been dead for ten years now, why should that matter at all?"

"It's complicated, Your Highness," Cassini said. "We're still trying to convince them to intervene, and I'm not saying that it can't happen. I just wouldn't count on it."

A frustrated helplessness seized the young girl for a moment, her frail little hands squeezing at the edge of her mattress. "Fly me to the Earth Palace tonight, I'll personally clean every single floor, wall, and surface with my tongue if that's what it takes."

He gave a wan smile. "If only it was that simple. Now, I still do have that bit of good news, if you're interested."

She weakly waved her hand over towards Cassini.

"We've received a donation of over three billion creds, for the war effort," he said. "It's certainly the largest financial contribution we've received since the war started, and will definitely help."

She got to her feet rapidly at this, wincing slightly as her weakened bones and joints protested against her sudden movement. "From who?! Who would give us that much money?"

"Anonymous," Cassini replied. "And believe me, we've tried to trace it through, but whoever did this hid themselves very well."

"Who would give that amount of money anonymously?" Saturn asked, forehead furrowing in thought. "If you're going to give that large of a sum to assist with a war effort, wouldn't you at least want to make your identity known so you can be thanked?"

Cassini shrugged. "Perhaps they fear retribution from The Rings if it's known that they're providing that much financial support to the sitting regime." He extended his right hand out towards the small twelve-year-old girl. "Now, Your Highness, that's all I have in terms of news. Let's go."

She reached over and took his hand, the two of them walking off towards the bedroom door, Saturn's mind still racing with theories as to who could possibly be so invested in seeing her come out victorious in this long war.

"

 _Tink._

 _Tink._

Endymion, posture slouched against the luxurious plush couch, had his right hand cupped by his side, holding a collection of pink diamonds in his palm. He was staring down at them, and every couple beats, he would pluck one of them from the pile with his left hand, and then toss it towards the floor at his feet. The bag full of diamonds was laying open right by his shoes, each toss of a tiny gem landing in the sack's mouth and joining hundreds of similarly priceless jewels.

He wasn't sure how long he had been doing the meaningless and pointless task, using the monotony of the repeated act to process the events of the day with a clear mind.

He heard the door open behind him, but didn't bother to look up to see who it was. All in all, a rather careless decision given the collection of pink gemstones he was currently playing with, but he was in no state to really think about such a thing.

"I just heard that she left."

Endymion recognized Kunzite's deep, commanding voice, which at the very least spared him concern over someone else unraveling his web of deception.

"So, she found out?"

Endymion was vaguely aware of his general coming up behind the couch.

"Your Highness, you really shouldn't have those out in the open, anyone could walk in at any time!" Kunzite said, taking large steps around the couch over towards the bag and picking it up.

"Who cares?" he muttered quietly, Kunzite presenting the bag's open mouth towards him. Despite his indifference, he lazily placed his cupped hand over the mouth and tipped it over, pouring the gems back in.

Kunzite sighed, looking around the large room, eyes catching the glint of a few more pink diamonds down in the carpet several paces away. He quickly went over and kneeled down by the crystals, picking them out of the fibers with his fingers and putting them back into the bag. "So, what happened?"

Endymion's only response to this question was to tilt his head down, resting his chin down on his chest.

"Your Highness, please, I need to know the situation," Kunzite pleaded after finishing rebagging all of the diamonds, going up behind the couch and placing both hands down on the top of the backrest. "Did she find the diamonds?"

Endymion nodded listlessly.

Kunzite grimaced. "Yes, well, I did advise that you allow me to hide them in one of my safehouses, for this exact reason, and…"

Kunzite forced his mouth shut, looking back down at his charge, who continued to be rather unresponsive despite the potentially serious situation.

"...well, we can have that conversation another time," he reasoned. "What does she know?"

Endymion visibly swallowed, neck pulsing with the effort to answer. "She knows I've been lying a lot, and that I've been doing something that I didn't want her to know about. And she knows it was quite lucrative, I suppose."

"But she doesn't know what it was?" Kunzite asked. "Nothing that would lead her to believe that you were smuggling imperium? What does she think you were doing?"

Endymion sighed, leading his head back against the top of the backrest, looking up at Kunzite.

"Your Majesty, I know you're upset, but we need to get a handle on this situation, immediately," Kunzite urged. "I need to understand what she knows, exactly, so I can figure out what to do next. She could be reporting you to the agency right now, for all we know."

"She has no idea that I've been running black market imperium," Endymion finally stated. "Maybe she's theorized it, but she has no reason to think that specifically. She knows I was lying about survival training. I think she thinks that Princess Mercury is involved, somehow."

Kunzite flinched back slightly. "What made her think that?"

"Oh...she saw the diamonds, and she thought that there might be a connection with Mercury because of all their diamond mines," Endymion murmured. "Thinks I'm involved in something illegal with her, probably." He shrugged. "I mean, she does know that Princess Mercury knows something, so add that to the list."

Kunzite came around to the front of the couch, staring the Crown Prince down. "Since when does Princess Mercury know anything?"

Endymion sighed. "There was an...incident...at the opera on Neptune." He thought for a moment. "Princess Mercury and Queen Mars managed to ascertain the nature of my dealings in the black market."

Kunzite's eyes bulged. "What?!"

Endymion lazily put his palm out towards his general. "It's fine, it's fine, I handled it."

"H-handled it?" Kunzite stuttered. "W-w-what does that mean?!" He dropped the bag to the floor. "How did they...how did they find out?! What do they know?!"

Endymion groaned. "What difference does it make?"

"Your Highness, if two members of other royal houses are aware of your illicit dealings in imperium, then that's something that we have to address, you need to—"

"Kunzite, it doesn't matter anymore," Endymion said darkly, putting his right hand up to cover his face. "Oh, what was I _thinking_?"

Kunzite, with some effort, swallowed down the dozens of questions he had for the Prince. "It was...entirely unnecessary for you to keep the diamonds in your room, yes."

"No, no, not even that," Endymion protested, slumping to the side on the couch, craning himself down into a lying position. "This whole thing, all of it, from the very start, what was wrong with me?" He shook his head. "Getting involved in imperium smuggling?" He peeked through his fingers, around at the lavish room. "Like I need money? How much time and effort have I spent on this, and for what?"

Kunzite glanced to the left and right, mouth going a little dry.

"What did I even stand to gain?" he moaned. "And why did it take me so long to realize that? And the danger I put myself in? I've been within two paces of a psychotic, murderous criminal on multiple occasions. I put myself at risk like that, just to make money? Gods, it's so stupid when you take a little bit to actually think about it." His eyelids fluttered up and down a few times. "I deserve this. I have it coming."

Kunzite pursed his lips. "Your Highness, whatever questionable decisions you've made in recent cycles, you should remember why you decided to do this in the first place. You were trying to do something good for your wife. Trying to protect her."

Endymion lolled his head back against the couch cushions. "Something good for my wife," he repeated. "All I've done with this venture is...worry her, and hurt her, and alienate myself from her. And lie to her, let's not forget that. Honestly, I'm almost relieved that she found out, I was starting to struggle to keep all the lies straight in my head."

Kunzite couldn't summon an appropriate response to the extreme contrition his charge was showing, so he instead turned his focus back to the practical. "Well. Now what do we do?"

Endymion swung himself up into a sitting position, placing his elbows on his knees and holding his hands together. "First, I suppose you can forget about looking for a new laboratory. I'm quitting the imperium smuggling business, effective immediately. I'm done with all of it. And then, next time I see Serenity, I'll...well...I'll tell her everything."

Kunzite gave a small wince. "Um, Your Highness, I don't know if that's a good idea."

"I don't care what constitutes a good idea right now, Kunzite," Endymion said, looking down at the floor by his feet. "The only thing I care about right now is getting Serenity back. And telling the truth is the only way that'll happen."

Kunzite gritted his teeth. "Endymion, based off your description of what she said, it seems like she doesn't really know anything. She doesn't even know if you've been doing anything illegal, which might be the only reason why we're not being raided by agency soldiers right now. If you actually tell her what you've done, she might just immediately turn you in. This is a very bad situation, but telling her that you've been violating galactic law might just make it a lot worse."

"Maybe," Endymion agreed. "But maybe I have to accept that possibility. I deserve it, don't I? If she turns me in, then I deserve it."

Kunzite thought for a moment. "What did she say when she was leaving? Did she give a reason? Any sort of plan for the future?"

Endymion closed his eyes. "She said she wanted me out of her life. Said she was going to get all of her stuff moved back to the Moon Palace, and get the midwives moved there as well. It certainly sounded permanent, if that's what you mean."

"Yes, that...doesn't sound like someone who is necessarily going to take you back no matter what you do," Kunzite pointed out. "I'm sorry to have to say it, Your Highness, but there may be no winning move here. You telling her what you've been doing is very possibly going to accomplish nothing but grant her leverage over you. In fact, in my opinion, that's probably the end result."

"Perhaps," Endymion replied, opening his eyes again. "But I have to believe that there _is_ a winning move. That I can get her back." He looked up at his general, a deep sadness weighing down his eyes. "Because I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if I can't. If it ends up getting me tossed in a cell on board _The Savery_ , so be it. But right now, getting her back is the _only_ thing I value."

Kunzite sucked down a slow breath, then pushed it out. Beyond that little whisper of sound, the room was silent for several long beats.

The table right by the head of the bed suddenly emitted a clear ringing tone that filled the room. Kunzite's head snapped up to look over at the vibrating communicator disc up on the table, then glanced over to the Prince. He hadn't even reacted to it.

Kunzite gave Endymion several beats to show some sign of caring that he was being hailed, before walking around the couch, heading over to the table by the bed. A few beats later, he held the disc in his hands, looking down at the center of it to see that one of the palace operators was calling. He pressed his finger down into the center of the disc.

"General Kunzite speaking," he said, glancing over at the back of the Prince's head. "Prince Endymion...present."

"I've got a message for His Highness," a female voice began through the device, a soundwave hologram above the disc pulsing with her syllables. "Cronus of Saturn wants to have a lunch meeting with him, tomorrow. I know it's short notice, but since it's Cronus we have to at least ask."

Endymion turned around, his interest finally piqued. Kunzite thought for a moment.

"According to him, he wishes to present a proposal to the Prince."

"One moment, please," Kunzite said, tapping a button along the outside ring of the communicator, the blue soundwave going flat and turning red. "Should I tell him you're not interested?"

Endymion paused for a moment, but then quickly nodded. "Y-yes, well...no, actually." He put his hand up to his mouth. "I should tell him. In person. Um, tell him to come here for lunch. I'll do him the courtesy of telling him myself, he deserves at least that much."

Kunzite nodded, then lifted the disc back up to his mouth. "Go ahead and tell Cronus to come to the palace for lunch. The Prince is free to meet with him."

"Will do."

Kunzite tapped the center of the disc again. "I'll have a private room set up so you two will be free to discuss business."

Endymion nodded, slowly turning back to face out the large glass doors, leading to the balcony.

"

Cronus's tiny, two-pronged fork stuck into the white crab meat that had been splayed out onto his plate. "Thank you for meeting me on such short notice."

Endymion nodded, lazily fidgeting with his tiny fork, making no move towards the food in front of him. The two of them were in a small, well-lit room, four pure white walls surrounding them and a marble floor beneath their feet, a golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Other than the solitary door in the east wall, there was no way in or out of the room. It was about as secure as a room in the Earth Palace could possibly feel without being an actual panic chamber.

"I assume you're prepared to talk business?" Cronus said, lifting a piece of crab meat to his mouth and biting it off his fork.

"Y-yes, Cronus, but I'm afraid things have changed somewhat since we last met," Endymion replied, looking a little sheepish.

"Well, before we get into that, are we in a secure location?" Cronus pulled a rectangular device out of his inside jacket pocket, looking down at the front of it as he pushed down a button on the face. "Is anyone listening to us right now?"

"You have nothing to worry about," Endymion replied.

After a couple moments, Cronus set the device down on the table in front of him. "Very good. Now, when people ask what this meeting was about, we should make sure our stories match." He cleared his throat. "When asked, we'll simply say that I came here to offer you an apprenticeship at Galen Laboratories, to obtain a diamond-level certification in medical science. It's a simple story that checks out, you did show a strong aptitude in the field during your education. I wanted to offer you the opportunity to reach the highest possible accolade one can achieve."

Endymion nodded. "Y-yes, that sounds perfectly fine to me," he said. "Now, Cronus—"

"First, I want to extend my thanks to you for the initial offering," Cronus began. "It was worth every last cred. Every last bit of it met my standards as well. We sold all of it within six days of our transaction."

Endymion's eyelids fluttered a bit. "S-six days? Wow, that's...you have quite an effective distribution network." He nodded. "You must be proud."

"Yes. Now, I have an offer for you," Cronus interrupted. "One that will see us working together for the foreseeable future, that will make both of us very happy. You will never have to worry about your product's distribution again, and will make more than enough money for it to be worth your time."

Endymion pursed his lips, then swallowed down hard. "Cronus, I...please, don't take this the wrong way."

Cronus's eyebrows raised up towards his hairline a bit, and he held silent, waiting for the Crown Prince to continue.

"I didn't want an operator to relay a refusal to meet on my behalf, or have Kunzite tell you that I'm not interested, I respect you and the way you conduct business too much for that. You were nothing but professional when interacting with me, and in an environment like the black market, that's something that is clearly very rare and deeply appreciated." Endymion shifted around in his seat a bit. "So I wished to tell you this personally, p-please don't think I was trying to lead you on or waste your time by inviting you here. But, as I said, things have changed, and I've decided to...I suppose, retire from the imperium smuggling business."

Cronus's pleasant, easy smile faded a bit as Endymion spoke, but his composure remained.

"I appreciate your interest in a continuing relationship, and under different circumstances, I would have been happy to work with you. My decision to retire has nothing to do with you at all." He set the fork down and his hands went down into his lap, gripping his kneecaps tightly. "And I'm sure this is disappointing to you, but...well, I had a wake-up call of sorts last night. I've been thinking about the things in my life that are actually valuable to me, the things that I actually want, and the kind of person that I want to be. And I believe that I've made a mistake, getting involved in this business. It's caused me to become someone that I don't think I like being. Someone that is not me. I've been trying to fool myself into believing I could be this person, but...well, no more."

Cronus looked down at the crab meat before him for a moment, touching the tip of his fork against the heated plate that supported them. He quickly looked back up to the Prince. "My offer may not be exactly what you're thinking. I'd like you to at least hear it."

Endymion gave a shaky little nod, gesturing over towards the wealthy scientist. "Of course. Go ahead, but I must tell you that no offer that you can make will change my mind."

"Galen Laboratories has recently opened a facility on Deimos. I'm sure you've heard of it. I have a hidden chamber in that facility, that I am prepared to outfit with whatever equipment you require in order to synthesize your product. Nobody will ever find you in this chamber. No more concern about hiding or keeping on the move. In this laboratory, you'll be utilizing industrial equipment that allows you to make massive quantities of imperium at once, over a thousand libras per batch. I do not know your process, but I will require five batches every ten days. And for these five batches across ten days, the sum of which must equal or exceed five thousand libras, I will pay you two billion, six hundred million creds."

Endymion recoiled away from the table slightly, eyes widening.

"Just shy of one hundred billion creds a year. You will never need to concern yourself about equipment or materials, I will provide all of that. All I need from you is your raw product and the synthesization process." Cronus nodded.

"One hundred billion a year," Endymion muttered, reaching up to run the tip of his index finger along the corner of his mouth. "Wow."

"Ongoing until you run out of product," Cronus added. "I will need at least a one year long commitment from you. Past that, you can leave the business if you'd prefer, but I am happy to continue to distribute your product as long as you would need distribution."

Endymion blinked a few times, glancing down at the table. "I…"

"So, it's a yes then?" Cronus prompted.

Endymion sighed. "It's not a question of money," he said, looking Cronus straight in the eye. "I'm sorry, but my answer is still no."

"Then perhaps we could arrange a deal for your raw product?" Cronus suggested. "And your formula and process? I have an accomplished chemist who can handle synthesization. Simply sell your raw product to me for a lump sum of money, and then wash your hands of the business."

"Selling you raw imperium would still be a criminal act on my part," Endymion said. "The...the formula and process I'm using was also obtained illegally, and to sell it to you would be the same. And, although I've tried to play the part of a criminal in recent cycles, I'm simply not one. And trying to be one has now cost me what I love and care about the most. So, with apologies, that's not possible either." He put his hand out towards Cronus. "I mean no offense, you're clearly cut out for life in the underworld, and I have no problem with that, but I'm starting to realize that I'm simply not."

Cronus stared at the Prince for a couple beats, then gave a small shrug. "Of course, I am disappointed. But I do understand." He gestured down at the food. "I can at least finish this?"

Endymion nodded, prompting Cronus to begin to dig into the crab meat with additional enthusiasm.

"

"The official death toll in the Tarvos Academy bombing attack has officially reached six thousand, with more bodies being found in the rubble and others perishing in hospitals after sustaining severe injuries in the explosion. While the official count is still in progress, it seems highly likely that this incident will end up as the most deadly attack on a civilian target in the decade-long history of this conflict on Saturn."

Princess Serenity was sitting on the edge of her bed, eyes glued to the hologram projector over on the table in the middle of the room as it showed assorted images of destruction, as well as occasionally displaying graphs. The male voice came out strong and clear from the speakers on the projector, providing a context to the awful images being placed in front of her. A hard, determined glare was in Serenity's eyes as she watched the broadcast intently.

Serenity's bedroom in the Moon Palace had been somewhat ignored due to no longer having a resident, but had still been maintained enough for her to move right back in.

"It is currently unknown how the explosive device was placed inside the academy, but The Rings have already taken credit for the attack, claiming that such will be the fate of all who take the side of the current regime. The bloody war seems to have no end in sight, with neither side able to gain a clear advantage."

A couple of soft knocks at the door, followed by the slight creak of it swinging open, drew Serenity's attention away. Her mother, an awkward smile on her face, stood in the threshold, giving her daughter an odd look.

"Um...w-what are you watching?" The Queen asked, as the Princess picked a remote up off the bed next to her and turned down the volume.

"The news," she replied dully.

Queen Serenity sighed, glancing around the dimmed room. "Um...so...sweetie, I know it's not any of my business—"

"You're right," Serenity snarked, a strong sharpness in her voice that was hardly ever there. "It's not."

The elder Serenity stared at her daughter, wanting to say something, before finally hanging her head down to look towards the carpet with a frown and sigh.

"Mother," Serenity said tersely. "I'll talk about it when I'm ready, and I'm not ready."

"W-well, okay, it's just...this is so not like you at all, and I just can't help but...I…"

After a couple beats of silence, she pulled the door shut again, leaving Serenity to stare at the holographic projector.

"

The glowing, translucent elevator shaft that started right in front of Prince Endymion's bedroom balcony began to give off a very faint hum. That wasn't enough to draw the Prince's attention, as he was sprawled out on the couch, lost in his thoughts. Nor did he notice the short blonde woman quickly zip up the glowing tube and step out onto the balcony, quickly crossing over to the glass doors.

It wasn't until the woman's knuckles rapped smartly against the glass door that his head rocketed up in surprise. On seeing the small woman clad in white clothes, standing there with a stern look on her face, he scrambled to his feet and sprinted over to the door. Pressing the lock button with his thumb, he twisted the knob open, ushering in a small blast of air from the outside.

The two just stood there, staring at each other, for a non-trivial amount of time. Finally, a shaky smile found Endymion's face.

"Sweetie, it's really good to see you," he managed weakly. "P-please, come in." He moved to the side and beckoned her.

"Is now a good time?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she slowly entered the bedroom, looking around the massive luxury chamber.

"Of course, I'm always happy and willing to see you any time," Endymion replied, shutting the door behind her. "T-thank you for coming to see me, I...I wish you had called ahead. I haven't even bathed yet today." He gave an embarrassed little grin.

Suddenly, the bedroom door popped open, prompting Endymion to jolt a bit before sprinting over, Julia preparing to enter with a basket of red towels in tow.

"Uh, no, no!" Endymion cried, holding his hands out towards the confused maid. "Not right now, please!"

She had taken one step into the room, but quickly jumped back as if her foot had discovered the floor was molten lava. Endymion grabbed the edge of the door, swinging it back shut, holding it open just a crack to peek out at Julia.

"Um, sorry, I just...I'm in the middle of something important right now, can't be disturbed. Please, tell the other maids as well, I don't want to be disturbed. Until the afternoon."

"Y-Yes, Your Highness," Julia replied quickly, bowing as Endymion closed the door and locked it. He turned around, pressing his back up against the door.

"Right, now...where were we?"

Serenity glanced about the room yet again, then turned her focus to her husband. "If you act like an adult about this, then I will too."

Endymion swallowed down the lump in his throat, then stood up straight. "O-of course, Serenity, I...you know, these last three days without you, for me, I have to say it's really done an excellent job of reminding me what I really care about in life. It's let me clear my mind, step back, and really think about what I've been doing, and how I've been treating you. And it's really been horrifying to think about, actually. So now, with your permission, I'd like us to sit down and find a way to work this out. And I think that, by the time we're done, you'll know that I've certainly made mistakes, but that I've learned from them and we'll both be better off for it."

Serenity sighed. "That's not what I meant," she muttered. "Endymion, if you agree to stay away from me and Chibiusa, then I'm willing to lie about why we're separating."

Endymion's mouth twitched downward, face going blank. "E-excuse me?"

"Our parents are both going to have a lot of questions about why we're separating. So will the entire galaxy. We should have a consistent story, something that people will accept. I think that's very much in your best interests," Serenity said flatly.

"S...S-separation?!" Endymion said disbelievingly. "Serenity, I...I…" he turned away from her, ducking his head down and rubbing his face, exhaling out powerfully as he paced away from her. "Serenity." He stood back up, looking at her. "You can't be serious."

"I am," Serenity insisted. "I told you three days ago that I want you out of my life. That still stands."

Endymion winced down hard, eyes squeezing shut in denial. "Serenity, I...how can you even say something like that?!" He opened his mouth to say more, but stopped himself to suppress the building anger inside of him, steadying himself.

"I'm not interested in destroying your life," Serenity said evenly. "I just don't want to be in it anymore. That's my offer, you should take it."

"Serenity, we _just_ got married! We have a daughter who's not even four cycles old, we...we are royals! Our marriage united our Kingdoms together! How can that word even cross your mind?! Separation?!"

"I'm not looking forward to it," Serenity said crossly. "I know it'll be a scandal. I know I'll be asked a billion questions about it. But that's the only option."

Endymion shook his head back and forth emphatically. "No, no, Serenity, I...listen." He put his hand out towards her. "We're having a disagreement. A fight. A misunderstanding. Trust me, married couples have those all the time. They work through them, they talk them out, they learn from them and grow past them. That's how this works. If married couples got separated every time they had a fight, there wouldn't _be_ any married couples left in the galaxy!" He put his hands together in front of his chest. "Serenity, you don't even know what I've been doing! You don't even know my side of things! You're missing massive pieces of context!"

Serenity exhaled, glancing down at the floor, letting her arms hang back down at her sides. "I think I've figured it out already."

Endymion tensed up a bit. "Figured out what?"

She looked back up at him. "War profiteering." She blinked a few times. "I think that's what it's called."

Endymion's face wrinkled up, the Prince blinking rapidly as if he had just been dazed. "W-what?!"

"That's what you've been doing, isn't it?" Serenity asked. "I was watching the news last night, and I figured it out. That's where you got the diamonds from, right? That's what you've been working on in secret all this time." She again turned her focus down to the carpet beneath her feet. "I've read about it, war profiteering, it's where you sell equipment and supplies to both sides in a war. They're obviously desperate, so you can charge virtually whatever you want to, and because you're selling to both sides, it also...helps cause the war to go on longer, so you can keep selling to them." She paced a couple steps away from him, scowling deeply down at the floor. "The civil war on Saturn. You're selling goods to the sitting regime and The Rings, prolonging the war and making profit off of the destruction and death."

Endymion looked mortified. "Serenity. No." He pointed his right index finger out towards her. "Listen to me, I...I have done bad things. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I have done things that are illegal. Some of my decisions have led me to doing things that are immoral. But I would never, _ever_ , do anything like war profiteering!" He pointed up at his chin. "I couldn't! I would _never_ try to make money off of what's happening on Saturn right now!"

Serenity slowly turned back towards him, then shrugged her shoulders. She tilted her head slightly.

Endymion sighed. "I...the truth is…"

He turned to glance at the bedroom door, a sort of reflexive tic to make sure the two of them were still alone, then looked back to the Princess.

"...imperium." He finished, swallowing down hard on some phlegm building up in his mouth. "Black market imperium."

Serenity gave a mournful groan, eyes closing for a moment. "Oh. Endymion. Gods," she managed to gasp out, putting her right hand up to her forehead.

"Hey!" Endymion put his hands out to his sides. "It's a lot better than war profiteering, isn't it?! A _lot_ better! Can I get a _little_ something for not being involved in something as awful as that?!"

Serenity shot him an incredulous, withering look. "A little something?" she repeated. "Black market imperium is among the most serious crimes in the galaxy!"

"Well, it's better than war profiteering!" Endymion insisted lamely. "It's not even close!"

"Alright," she grunted. "I've heard enough." She began to storm over towards the balcony door, Endymion sprinting across the room to get in front of her.

"W-w-wait!" he shouted, skidding to a halt in front of her. "Serenity, please, just hear me out!"

"I don't want to hear you out, I know more than enough already," she said in a low, biting voice. "My offer stands, now get out of my way!"

"Serenity, it's a morally grey area!" Endymion protested. The blonde Princess, who was moving to get around her husband, froze at this. "I-I know it's illegal, of course, but...let's think about this for a bit!"

She slowly tilted her head up to look at Endymion's face, scowling up at the Crown Prince.

"Sweetie, really, imperium smuggling is one of the few things keeping the agency from holding leverage over the entire galaxy! Without that...that competition, they've basically got every other Kingdom in the solar system by the balls! They can charge whatever they want, they can demand any concession they can think of, they can effectively rule with impunity over every single planet and moon!" He dramatically tossed his left arm out in a sweeping motion to his side. "Serenity, the days of the agency being an altruistic organization concerned only with oversight and preventing waste are long gone. The black market for imperium is the only thing keeping them from being able to exert absolute control. It's a necessary evil, it serves a good purpose. It creates a free market that limits the agency's power."

She narrowed her gaze slightly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"A lot of black market imperium gets sold to common, everyday people. People who would otherwise be forced to pay whatever the agency tells them to pay. People who have to cut back on things like food, clothing, medicine, and housing in order to afford the agency prices." He slowly put his hand up to his chest. "My...my activities in the black market help empower those people to live better lives, stretch their budgets further. That's really a majority of what my activities lead to, and...trust me, sweetie. To those common, everyday people...I'm a hero."

She blinked a couple times. "Endymion, I might not be smart. But I am not as stupid as you think I am, or as stupid as you want me to be," she hissed.

Endymion gave a frustrated sigh. "Serenity, once again, I don't think you're stupid, nor do I want you to be stupid—"

"Black market imperium _enables_ organized crime!" she snapped, teeth gritted. "I've done enough reading to know that much. Almost all organized crime outfits in the galaxy are able to function and operate only because they're able to obtain imperium without going through the agency." She shook her head. "The Rings were able to rise to power and mount a challenge to the current regime on Saturn because of black market imperium. Without the black market, there would be no civil war!"

Endymion blinked a couple times, mouth hanging open slightly. "...valid counterpoint. You're right about that. It's definitely a complex situation with many pros and cons, everyone will interpret their weight differently." He pointed at Serenity. "I think we'd both benefit massively if we had a debate over the merits and drawbacks of the existence of the black market, we'd both learn a lot!"

Serenity rolled her eyes, and then began again trying to move towards the balcony door. "Alright, that's enough!"

Endymion shuffled backwards, trying desperately to keep her in the room. "H-hold on, Serenity, there's more!"

"I'm already disgusted enough with what I've heard, I don't need to hear more!" she snapped, rounding Endymion, hand slamming down on the golden doorknob and twisting the door open. She took one step out onto the balcony.

"Serenity! It was on the Moon!" Endymion blurted out.

The Princess was reaching back to shut the door behind her, but just as her hand found the edge of the door, she stopped. After several beats, she turned around, frustrated confusion wearing wrinkles down on her forehead and cheeks.

"...what was on the Moon?"

Endymion felt his stomach turning as Serenity stared him down. Slowly, she closed the door, re-entering the bedroom as she did so.

"...the imperium. I found imperium on the Moon," he answered slowly.

Serenity took a slow, heavy step towards the Prince of Earth, eyes scanning him up and down. "What?"

"Um…" Endymion glanced to the side, pursing his lips and fidgeting slightly under Serenity's lingering stare. "R-remember that time I got separated down in the Moon mines? I fell d-down that tunnel? W-well, when I was down there, I...um...found something."

Serenity's mouth gaped open, horror now overtaking her expression of disgust and anger. "You...you're kidding, right?" She blinked a couple times. "Because it's not funny."

Endymion shook his head.

"Ohhhh...Gods," Serenity moaned, head dramatically tilting downward to look down at the carpet. "You're _mining_ imperium?!"

"Serenity, that's why I did this!" Endymion said, closing in on her and delicately putting his hands out towards her. "When I was down there in the tunnel by myself, I found a little crystal. I came back later to investigate, and...Serenity, please, look at me, you need to hear this, it's important."

With some effort, she lopped her head back up straight on her shoulders, giving Endymion a nasty glare. "You're stealing imperium from the Moon and selling it on the black market?"

"I'm not stealing it!" Endymion protested. "Our Kingdoms have been merged into one, the Earth and Moon are one and the same now!"

"They weren't when you found it," Serenity said through gritted teeth.

Endymion sighed, giving an exasperated look around the room. "I wasn't stealing then, either! I was...I was trying to protect it from being stolen from you!" He gave his head a quick shake. "Serenity, when I went back down to check that tunnel out, I found...it's almost impossible to comprehend what's down there."

Her body was heaving slightly as she breathed heavily to combat her building rage, but she seemed to manage to settle herself just slightly, so she could at least listen.

"A massive chamber and tunnel system, made almost _entirely_ of imperium. The purest that's ever been found, by far. Over ninety-nine percent pure. Millions of libras. Tens of millions, hundreds of millions, we don't even know!" He again put his palm out towards Serenity. "But what's down there is the most valuable treasure trove in this entire galaxy, by far! Worth ten times more than every single diamond mine on Mercury combined! Power to run this galaxy for centuries! The Royal House of Venus would gladly sell their entire Kingdom for...probably a small _slice_ of what's down there!"

Serenity slowly exhaled through her teeth, coming out in a light hiss.

"That imperium vein is the last golden egg that the Moon has to lay, and it is the biggest and brightest yet! And if I had followed the law, it would have been taken, and you would have been given some sad little pittance for it. And I didn't want that for you! So...that's why I did this." Endymion backed off a bit, voice starting to peter out.

Serenity glanced down at the floor, arms still tightly constricted over her chest. "You're...you're working with that Tuxedo Mask, aren't you?"

Endymion evasively glanced over to the far corner of the room, suddenly looking rather meek and timid. Serenity flinched back a bit, blinking over at her estranged husband.

"You...you _are_ Tuxedo Mask!" she gasped, pointing a shaking finger over towards him. "That guy that your father's chasing, he's…" she clapped her hand up to her forehead. "By the _Gods_!"

"Serenity, I—"

"Wait, how…" her mouth gaped up and down a couple times. "Your father...the survival training, he helped you sell that story, I...how…"

"He doesn't know," Endymion explained. "I got him to help me lie about survival training to convince you, but he has no idea about any of this imperium business." He sighed. "Serenity, please, I know I shouldn't have done it, I regret having anything to do with it, but...please, try to understand, I did it for you!"

Serenity gave him a harsh, disbelieving look. "You did this for me?"

Endymion gave a shaky little nod. "I...I did! The Moon...the Moon used to be the most powerful, well-respected Kingdom in the galaxy. The center of the solar system. And if...if the laws were fair, this find, this imperium vein, would have made that the case yet again. With the imperium down there, the Moon could have become a shining beacon on top of a hill if not for the agency, and...I just wanted to make that happen again. For you."

"For me," Serenity said. "Well, I guess I can't exactly blame you. After all, how many... _hundreds_ of times have I asked you to, please oh please, if the opportunity were to arise for you to become one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, then do it, for me!" she snapped.

Endymion winced.

"Are you under the impression that I'm in constant agony because...because...the Moon Palace isn't made out of solid gold?! That our capital city isn't constructed entirely on high-powered gravity pads so it floats high up in the sky?! That people who enter through the front doors aren't immediately blinded by a giant array of sparkling diamonds?!" She shook her head slowly. "Endymion, all I ever cared about was that the Moon Kingdom would survive, that's all I wanted! I was happy with the merger, I was happy the Kingdom was going to stay in my family, and that's it! I didn't need any more, and I certainly didn't need you lying to me and becoming a criminal in order to try to get more!"

Endymion sadly nodded. "I shouldn't have done it, I know, I was just trying to protect you—"

"Okay, now I've _really_ heard enough!" she said, spinning back towards the balcony door.

"Serenity, it doesn't matter now, I'm not doing it anymore, I'm done with it!" Endymion said pleadingly.

Hand on the knob, she paused to turn back to Endymion. "Well, good for you, I'm sure your next wife will appreciate that."

Endymion quickly ran over to her as she opened the door. "Wait wait wait, Serenity! I'm serious! I made a mistake, I've learned from it, I'm not doing it anymore! I'm out of the business!"

"I don't care!" she hissed.

"Serenity." Endymion straightened himself up as the Moon Princess walked out onto the balcony. He quickly pursued her. "I...I had a man here, a couple days ago."

Halfway to the elevator, Serenity stopped, turning her head to look over her shoulder.

"This man offered me an obscene sum of money if I would go work for him. An amount that I never dreamed possible in this business. Nearly twelve figures." His voice was slightly hushed, a natural precaution due to them now being outside, even though nobody could hear them all the way up on the towering balcony. "I turned him down. It was everything I could have ever asked for, and then some, and I said no. Because I don't want to do it anymore. Because I want to devote myself to the things I actually care about, you and my daughter! I want to be the man that you married, not the man that I've foolishly tried to be recently. The man that you married is the man that I am. Just give me a chance, and you'll see that!" He gently closed the gap between the two of them. "I turned down twelve figures worth of creds, Serenity. Because I value you and my daughter more than any amount of money."

Serenity could only muster up a tired glare. "Do you want me to congratulate you? Praise you for not breaking more laws?"

Endymion sighed, tilting his head back, looking up at the sky.

"This imperium, where is it?" Serenity asked. "Specifically, where is it?"

"Um…section three-one-four," he replied. The dangerous ramifications of revealing where the vein was ran through his mind for maybe a beat, but he remained dedicated to his promise to tell Serenity the whole truth.

She closed her eyes, thinking for a moment. "How long will it take for you to cover all of your tracks down there?"

Endymion squinted. "W-what do you mean by that?"

"Get rid of all the...all the evidence that you were ever down there. Destroy all traces that you were actually mining from it, how long will that take you?" she asked.

"Oh...w-well. I have no idea," Endymion answered.

Serenity nodded, popping her large eyes back open. "Alright. Well, you've got twenty days. Whatever you need to do to wipe that place clean of your presence, you do it before then. Because in twenty days, I'm calling Jericho and telling him to go investigate section three-one-four."

Endymion opened his mouth to protest, but never got a word out.

"And he's going to find whatever's down there. So for your sake, clear those tunnels of any hints of your presence." She nodded. "That's my deal."

"Serenity, if you do that, it goes to the agency. Do you have any idea how much power and leverage they'd have if that vein comes into their possession?!" Endymion argued.

"I don't care!" Serenity countered. "It's the _only_ option I have, anything else I can do would be violating the law! Actually, I'm violating the law by giving you twenty days, so please, cherish it and use it!" She raised her finger up underneath Endymion's chin as he came up to her. "And, Endymion, my original offer still stands. You say your father has no idea about any of this? I will keep it that way for you. I won't tell anyone about what you've been doing. We can make up some story together about our separation, you stay out of prison, you have the whole rest of your life in front of you, but only if you accept this, and you stay away from me and Chibiusa! That's the deal!"

She spun around, quickly darting over to the elevator. Endymion didn't even bother trying to chase her down this time, just watching her step back into the glowing circular tube and quickly being zipped downward.

Distraught and stunned, Endymion quickly ran over to the balcony edge to peer over, watching his wife disappear from sight as she zoomed down towards the palace garage. Reaching up to scratch at the top of his head, he slowly turned around to aimlessly stare at the back wall of the palace.


	26. Faustian

Chapter 26: Faustian

Wearing a casual black suit jacket with a black tie on top of a white undershirt, Cronus quickly walked across the concrete tarmac over to the entry port of his personal B-class cruiser. His hands fiddled with his collar as he came up to the short little staircase, jogging up into the main hub of his ship.

Inside, his five remaining lieutenants were milling about the hub. Cyprine and Ptilol, twins with blue and red hair respectively, white-haired Viluy, redheaded Eudial, and green-topped Tellu all snapped to attention at seeing their boss enter the ship. The stairs folded up, sealing the ship's entrance portal.

"How about now?" Cyprine asked, staring down Cronus.

"Nothing changes," he said firmly.

"Why are you protecting him?" Tellu asked. "It doesn't bother you, the cowardly way in which he had Mimete killed?"

Cronus moved over to a high-backed seat on the left side of the room and sat down, placing his hands on his thighs and giving an even, emotionless look over at Tellu. "Prince Endymion was put in a difficult situation. Yes, of course I don't approve of him having Mimete killed, nor the method by which he did it. But if Mimete had been passing information up to me, as she should have been doing, Prince Endymion would have been working for me several cycles ago, and there would have been no issues. She also made the Prince fear for his life with her unstable behavior. What happened was completely avoidable, and she carries much of the blame for how things ended."

"So he just gets away with this, then?" Tellu asked through gritted teeth.

"I'm a businessman," Cronus reminded her. "And you know what my priorities are. We can't let emotions rule us. Endymion remains the only link between me and the pure imperium, and that pure imperium guarantees us twenty-seven billion creds a cycle in pure profit as a _baseline_. I will accept what happened to Mimete if it means gaining that."

Ptilol squinted over at Cronus. "He turned you down, sir. That's what you said, wasn't it? Of course we wouldn't be asking this if he had agreed to work for you, but I was under the impression that he had declined your offer."

Cronus slowly dragged his gaze across the back of the hub room. "For the moment. He's having some doubt about his desire to remain in this business. Based off my conversation with him, I suspect his wife found out and disapproves. I believe this is temporary, and that he'll accept my offer in the near future."

Eudial scratched at the top of her head. "It's not going to matter if he turns the imperium over to the agency. Based off the things he said when you asked to buy his raw product, it seems like that's what he intends to do."

He shook his head. "He won't do that."

"What makes you so sure?" Viluy inquired. "You said that he said he didn't want to be a criminal anymore. Non-criminals hand imperium finds over to the agency."

"Call it intuition," Cronus replied. "Something drove him to enter imperium smuggling in the first place. Whatever that was, I don't believe that it's just gone. If he hands his raw product over to the agency, there will be no going back for him. Besides, I'm sure he's aware of how much power he would be handing the agency if he just gave them this. I doubt he'll be willing to do that."

"You're betting everything on intuition?" Eudial asked, giving a little smirk. "I thought that was my job."

"You once said that, without Endymion, everything we've done over the last decade will have all meant absolutely nothing," Cyprine added. "And now you're willing to bet all of that on your read of his emotions and feelings?"

"We can't really do anything else," Cronus stated. "It's his imperium, we have no idea where it is. I'm not seeing any other option."

"You disappoint me, sometimes," Tellu said. "How about some version of, get your royal ass on over to my laboratory and start cooking imperium for me or else I smash your skull open with a hammer?"

"Hardly the foundation for a good, healthy work relationship," Cronus countered. "This Prince Endymion is someone I would like to have a positive association with. I want investment. And beyond that, I doubt anything good will come of threatening a Prince." He spread his arms out to his sides. "That's one consideration that I'd like everyone in this room to make, since it seems to be escaping all of you. This is not some low-profile black market chemist who nobody will miss if we were to shoot him in the back of the head."

"What good is all the money and power you've obtained over the last ten years if you can't even kill one Prince?" Cyprine asked.

Cronus thought for a moment, looking around at the five young women, face wrinkled slightly into a small frown. "If it's confirmed that Prince Endymion has handed over all of his raw imperium to the agency, I will consider it. But until we know for certain that he is no longer of use to us, he is off-limits." He nodded. "I believe he can be convinced. I just have to figure out what motivated him to enter this business in the first place."

Cyprine sighed, but gave a reluctant nod.

"

Princess Serenity lifted Chibiusa up in front of her, boosting her up high into the air and watching her giggle and kick her feet around as she flew up above Serenity's head. As quickly as the young girl had been lifted up, she was taken back down into her mother's lap.

"So, I have to ask, sweetie. I know you went down to the Earth Palace today, and...well, how did it go?"

Serenity twisted her head back over her left shoulder to look at her mother, who was standing a few steps past the closed bedroom door, tentatively holding her hands together in front of her and forcing an awkward smile onto her face.

"I'm not ready to discuss it," the Princess said flatly, turning back to her daughter and quickly lifting her up into the air again before bringing her back down.

Queen Serenity sighed. "I just don't understand, honey, I...I'm trying to think of what this could be about! I really want you to be able to be open with me on this. If there's anyone in the galaxy you should be able to discuss this with, it should be me! I just don't understand how he could have done something that would make you this upset!"

"Mother, please!" Serenity said. "Right now, it's between me and him, and I'm not ready to talk about it yet! Not with anyone!"

"I...I just...okay, I understand. But there's something I really _need_ to know, honey. I said it wasn't any of my business, but the truth is, some of it is. This...thing between you and Endymion, whatever argument or disagreement you two are having. I just need you to promise me that you're working through it. That, at the very least, today, when you went down to see him, you started down the path of reconciliation. Just tell me that, and I'll stop bothering you, but I need to at least know that."

Princess Serenity scowled, Chibiusa wrapping her small, stubby arms around her mother's neck. "I can't tell you that. Because that's not what's happening."

Queen Serenity winced down hard, putting her hand up to the bridge of her nose and squeezing it.

"Mother, I'm sorry, this might be shocking to you, probably disappointing, but I'm afraid the situation is permanent. I don't want to make up with him, and I'm not going to." She turned around in time to see her mother squeezing her eyes shut hard, as if in pain.

"Mm...sweetie, maybe Endymion made a mistake. I-I just want you to be receptive to the idea that, whatever he might have done, I really do believe that deep down, he really loves you. And whatever it was that he's done that has made you this angry, you absolutely have the right to be upset at him about it and hold him accountable, but to throw away an entire marriage because of it might not be good for you or him. Or anyone! Take some time away, make sure that he understands that he hurt you, but I just want you to have an open mind next time you see him."

The Princess frowned. "Mom, I appreciate you saying all that, but I really need you to let me deal with this on my own. When I'm ready to talk about this, I will. But I need you to understand that there are things happening here that you don't know about right now."

Queen Serenity steepled her hands together in front of her. "Umm...sweetie. There might be some things that you don't know about either." She took in a gasping breath. "Serenity, I need you to be informed before you make any drastic decisions on this, so please, just listen to me. There might be some...things about the Kingdom merger agreement that you're not aware of, I think."

The younger Serenity blinked a few times, glancing down at Chibiusa as she fidgeted about in her lap, and then turned back over her shoulder to look at her mother. "Like what?"

"

Endymion sat, hunched over, arms crossed over his chest and forearms resting on his thighs. It was a rather odd sitting position for the Prince to be taking, looking quite uncomfortable, but to his three loyal generals gathered around him, his posture was the last thing on their minds.

"Your Highness, is there a reason why you don't want Jadeite here?" Kunzite asked, glancing over towards Zoisite and Nephrite.

"Yes," Endymion said darkly.

"It's your decision entirely, of course, but perhaps having another person here might be good," Zoisite pointed out. "Maybe Jadeite could offer a different perspective, see things from a different angle. It can't hurt to have another person offering advice."

"If this is a concern about you feeling you can't trust him, then he really shouldn't even be serving you as a general," Kunzite pointed out. "And I need to say, I believe that you should be able to trust him. He is capable of being serious, even if he often chooses not to be."

"I know I can trust him," Endymion muttered. "And I do. That's not what this is about." He sat up, leaning against the backrest of the couch and looking around at his three generals in a semi-circle around him. "I just already know what he's going to say, and I'm not in the mood to hear it."

"It's worth noting that Jadeite _does_ have more experience with women than any of us," Nephrite noted. "I think, anyway. He might actually have some insight on a problem like this."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Insight. His insight is going to involve a three-day booking of a luxury hotel suite on Venus, half-a-dozen of their local supermodels, ten barrels of mildly alcoholic drinks, a jar of saffron incense, and a crate of condoms. I don't want to hear it."

After a moment's thought, Kunzite gave a tiny shrug. "Now that you say that, I can...actually hear all of that in his voice really well in my head."

"While we're on the subject, I don't want him to know about my marital problems at all," Endymion continued. "The last thing I need is him sending escorts up to my bedroom at night to try to 'cheer me up'."

"Alright." Kunzite gave a little grunt. "So, you told her everything this morning?"

Endymion gave a shaky little nod. "Not... _literally_ everything, but she knows that I've been illegally mining and smuggling imperium. She knows I'm Tuxedo Mask. She knows that we found the imperium on the Moon and kept it secret. She knows that my father has no idea about any of this. I tried to tell her that...imperium smuggling is a necessary evil and actually accomplishes a lot of good. I told her that I did it to protect her and her Kingdom." He shook his head.

"So she didn't react well, I take it?" Zoisite asked.

"Well, she left again," Endymion replied. "I just don't know what to do at this point. I suppose if I give it some time, a few more days, she might have calmed down enough to at least consider hearing me out?"

He was met with a few beats of silence at this question.

"She strikes me as being remarkably insulated for a royal," Nephrite mused. "Not much exposure to politics or corruption or any of the dirty business that typically comes with having so much power."

"There's an innocence about her," Zoisite agreed. "She might be so utterly repulsed by the idea of doing anything illegal or bad, that she'll just never be willing to have an open mind about it."

Endymion hung his head down, chin resting on his chest. "Gods, there's just...so much nuance here. If she could just consider it for a little bit, I really believe that she could at least accept it." He scowled. "This is so much more complicated than, it's illegal, therefore it's bad. And I acknowledged that I realize now it was a mistake, and that I shouldn't have done it and I'm not doing it anymore. But she...I don't know if she didn't believe me or if she doesn't care."

"So, what else did she say?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion sighed heavily. "She said that...in twenty days, she's going to arrange for the imperium vein in the Moon mines to be found, so we have that long to cover up having ever been down there."

Kunzite's gaze narrowed slightly. "You told her where it was?"

Endymion grimaced. "She asked me where it was, and in the spirit of being completely honest with her, I told her." He glanced up. "Don't worry, I already regret it."

Kunzite gave a rasping little hiss. "Yes, that complicates things."

"I tried to tell her how valuable that vein is, and how dangerous it would be to give it all to the agency, but she didn't care." He gritted his teeth. "The most valuable treasure trove in the galaxy, and she's ready to give it all away just because she's too angry with me to see reason."

Nephrite glanced over to Kunzite. "Is twenty days enough time to cover your tracks down there?"

"It'll be impossible to hide the fact that _someone_ has been mining from the vein," Kunzite replied. "But they'll have no way of knowing who. I'll just need a couple days to pour some acids out down there to cover up any traces."

Endymion closed his eyes. "She says she doesn't want to see me anymore. Wants me to stay away from her and Chibiusa."

Zoisite raised an eyebrow, turning around to glance out the balcony window. "Well, that's going to be quite awkward. A married couple that never sees each other."

"Oh, no, she said she wanted a separation," Endymion corrected. "Was very firm about that."

Zoisite seemed taken aback by this, turning back to look at his charge. "She said that?"

"Yes, she was very clear too. Said that she'll turn me into the agency if I don't give her what she wants." He nodded sadly. "She offered to keep my secrets and lie about the reasons for the separation as long as I stayed away from her."

"Hm," Zoisite said, folding his hands together in his lap and looking down at the floor. "She must not know. Or she's so angry, she's forgotten."

Endymion's face twitched, and he quickly latched onto Zoisite's mysterious musings. "What does that mean?"

Zoisite thought for a moment. "It's just difficult for me to believe that she wouldn't care, and she must know, now that I think about it—"

"Zoisite, what are you talking about?" Kunzite prompted, as the youngest member of Endymion's guard seemed to be getting lost in his mind.

"S-sorry," Zoisite said, looking back up at Endymion. "Your Highness, there are serious ramifications if you and Serenity have an official separation. The merger of the Earth Kingdom and Moon Kingdom is contingent on you two being married. If you two are no longer married, then the union is split as well."

Endymion's eyes widened a little bit. "You mean to say that the Moon Kingdom would no longer receive support and funding from the Earth?"

"The contractual agreements would no longer apply, at the very least," Zoisite answered. "That entire document that dictates the terms of the merger would be completely moot. The Moon would be at the mercy of the charity of High King Kasios, and it's unlikely he would be feeling particularly charitable given that the union lasted less than a year. They may have bought themselves some time with the support and funding they've received from Earth since the marriage, but without ongoing deliveries of labor and goods...well, give it ten or twelve years, and there won't be a Moon Kingdom anymore."

Endymion swallowed, thinking. "Suppose the reason given for the separation is infidelity on my part."

"The reason for the separation is completely irrelevant, Your Highness," Zoisite said assuredly. "Doesn't matter who instigated it, who requested the separation, why it's happening, none of it matters at all. If you two separate, the Moon Kingdom loses its security net."

"You're positive?" Endymion asked.

"I wrote most of the merger agreement, so, yes," Zoisite replied. "She can't turn you in, either. Same difference. You go to prison, you're removed from the line of succession and automatically separated from Serenity, no more Kingdom union."

Endymion folded his hands up underneath his chin, resting his head on top of his knuckles. "She hates me so much, she'll see her entire Kingdom and birthright fall into complete ruin so she doesn't have to be around me?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Zoisite insisted. "Your Highness, I believe Princess Serenity was so distraught and upset about recent events, she wasn't seeing the bigger picture. Or she's forgotten, or she's bluffing. She's spent a good portion of her life being made familiar with the fact that her Kingdom is on the brink of collapse, and how devastating it would be to her mother if it collapsed. The Moon Kingdom has been under her family's rule since the start of recorded history, and without this merger, she'll likely end up being the Queen that gets to oversee the end of that. How many hundreds of times do you think Queen Serenity has told her daughter how relieved she is that she's marrying someone who can create the circumstances where the Moon will be protected? How many times did she drill that into her head, how crucial this was to their survival? I just can't imagine her being willing to throw all of that away."

Endymion slowly digested this new information, eyes downcast and mouth curved down into a look of determination. "So, give her time to calm down and she'll realize that she's stuck?"

"I can't speak to your odds of reconciling with her, and she can certainly do everything in her power to stay away from you for as long as she wants. But, as for a separation, well, her hands are tied. To kill the Kingdom union would be letting down pretty much every single person on the Moon." He shrugged. "I doubt she'll be willing to take on that kind of burden."

"There are other considerations, too," Kunzite thought aloud. "If it comes out that High King Kasios's son is an interplanetary imperium smuggler who was operating out of the Earth Palace, he'll certainly lose his council seat. I imagine there'd be an investigation on whether he was involved in the operation. Could be an investigation into Queen Serenity as well, since the imperium vein is on the Moon. There could be a lot of collateral damage. I imagine she'd be very hesitant to open up that box."

Endymion nodded. "She can still turn the imperium vein over to the agency, of course."

"Something you might just have to accept," Kunzite pointed out. "Yes, there are drawbacks and problems with handing it all over to the agency, it's far from ideal, but we'll survive."

Endymion scowled a bit, looking down at his feet. "She just doesn't understand the significance. If she could just calm down for a little bit and actually try to grasp the scope of what that vein represents, I'm sure she'd get it." He leaned back heavily, putting his hand up to his forehead. "But once she reports it, there's no going back. I'm still her husband, I need to protect her. I feel like I can't let this happen."

"What do you propose?" Nephrite asked. "Locking her in your room without her communicator for the rest of her life?"

Endymion exhaled deeply, looking off into the far corner of the room.

"It's going to be difficult to convince her of anything if she's insisting you stay away from her," Zoisite pointed out.

Endymion grimaced. "I suppose you're right." He sighed. "So, just let her hand the imperium over, and then wait? If she can't separate, then eventually she'll just have to...take me back, right?"

The three generals exchanged silent glances, back and forth.

"They're all that I care about," Endymion said wistfully. "My wife and my daughter. Whatever I have to do to give myself a chance to get them back in my life, I'm willing to do it."

Kunzite slowly rose to his feet, then leaned over the Prince and placed his hand on his shoulder. "We'll...we'll work through it, whatever it may be."

"If I might offer my perspective as a soldier, Your Highness," Nephrite chimed in as he too stood up. "It seems to me that you're the one with the advantage."

"Hm?" Endymion picked his head up, looking up at the brunette general.

"If what Zoisite says is true, and a separation would be devastating to her, then you have the advantage of knowing that she has no choice but to stay married to you. And as long as that's the case, then you should be able to dictate the terms of your future interactions with her. As her husband, you are...legally entitled to certain rights. So maybe you should exercise those."

Endymion's forehead furrowed in thought at this statement.

"Um, maybe not anytime soon!" Zoisite said quickly, shuffling over between Nephrite and Endymion. "U-uh...w-when I said all of that, that's not really what I meant."

Endymion tilted his head slightly to the right, hands still folded underneath his chin.

"Um...alright," Kunzite said, furtively gesturing over towards his two fellow generals. "Let's just hang back for now. Give her some time to realize her position and, maybe, open herself up to at least hearing you out. Eventually."

Endymion gave a vacant nod.

"

"Son of a _bitch_."

Kasios and Naxos were standing in front of a large detailed map of the galaxy being projected up onto the back wall of Kasios's office. Every planet and moon was depicted, with many of the moons being little more than tiny dots. Kasios held a black remote in his right hand, and was repeatedly tapping a button on its face. After several button presses, a few blinking red dots started to pulse on assorted depictions of the planets and moons.

"Eleven days now. Eleven days since the last whiff we've gotten of the clear stuff. How is that possible?" Kasios spread his hands to his sides in disbelief. "This can't just be a fluke. How can it explode all across the solar system and then just disappear in less than a cycle?"

"Maybe the guy ran out of product," Naxos suggested. "Whatever he did to go interplanetary, it took a _lot_ of imperium. Maybe it was his one big push to quickly make his money and then get out of the business."

Kasios, mouth open slightly, rubbed at his chin. "Why go through the trouble of getting a distribution network that covers the entire galaxy if you've only got a little imperium left?"

"Who knows?" Naxos said. "Maybe this distributor just happened to be the highest bidder, or got to him first." He shrugged. "Maybe Tuxedo Mask is dead. Or decided he's made enough money and is getting out."

Kasios gave an annoyed grunt. "Great. This guy gets to make billions of creds on our watch, and then he just disappears into the ether."

"Maybe it's his corpse that went into the ether," Naxos suggested. "I'd sleep a little easier thinking that. Maybe he's just dead, and all that money he made isn't worth anything to him now."

"Mm," Kasios hummed. "Maybe. Maybe he's dead, and his massive hoard of ninety-nine percent pure imperium is...somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, never to be found, just sitting there while the whole galaxy just goes dormant, and civilization regresses tens of thousands of years."

"I'm trying to be a little optimistic," Naxos said.

"I can't afford to be optimistic," Kasios grumbled, tapping the remote a few times and watching all the red dots disappear. "Shit. God, I wanted to get this prick."

"We all did," Naxos assured him. "But, if he really is done now, at least he didn't disrupt our long-term operations too much."

"No," Kasios grunted. "No, it's not...that's not what I'm here to get excited about." He shook his head. "I wanted to bring him in. I wanted to stick him in a cell, grill him for his product, hold him accountable. If we could have just kept him contained to Earth back a couple cycles ago, I really think we could have gotten him eventually. I mean, it was just a matter of time. You can't just keep framing people, and eventually we would have arrested the right person."

"You can't beat yourself up over it," Naxos insisted. "Whoever this Tuxedo Mask guy is, or was, he's good at this."

"I like to consider myself good at this too," Kasios grumbled. "Naxos, this guy, he was different. All these other imperium smugglers, these black market chemists, they're just the sludge on the floor that we have to mop up. Dummies trying to make a quick buck. But...shit, there's no other way to say it. This Tuxedo Mask guy was making us look like fools. The product he was putting out there blew anything we could do out of the water. No, this was something else. I wanted to bring him in. Wanted to make sure he understood that, ultimately, you can't beat the system. But, if he really did take the money and run, I guess maybe he did."

Naxos gave a slow sigh.

"Well, I guess without him to chase around, I'll have more time to focus on my duties on Earth," Kasios reasoned. "I really should get back there, I've spent too many days in a row up here."

"Oh, I wanted to ask, what's going on with that new mystic on Earth? Track him down yet?" Naxos watched as Kasios took his focus off the map and turned back to his desk.

"Her," Kasios clarified. "It's a her. And no, we're not getting anywhere on that one. Thankfully, she hasn't taken over the planet or killed anyone really important yet, so there's some kind of limit to her abilities. But it's going to be a huge pain to actually arrest her given what she can do."

"You've really got nothing?" Naxos asked, as Kasios settled down at the desk.

"We've got a name, I guess," Kasios said, sounding just a little bitter. "Uh...Beryl, I think."

"Like a wooden barrel?" Naxos wondered, scratching the back of his head.

"Maybe," Kasios muttered.

Suddenly, the communicator on the desk began to emit a low little tone, a couple lights on the front flashing.

"I'll let you get that," Naxos said, turning around towards the office door and trekking out of the room. "See you at dinner?"

"Sure thing," Kasios said, grabbing the communicator and tapping the center of the disc. He pulled the earpiece over to his ear and pushed it in. "Kasios here." He leaned back in the chair, the leather seat bending back under his weight. "Yes, I'm alone. Go ahead." The neutral little smile on his face was quickly replaced by a wrinkled frown. "Wait, _what?_ What do you mean, she moved out?!"

"

"Who told you?" Endymion asked, holding the active communicator up to his mouth as he paced nervously around his bedroom. "Yes, it matters, I didn't want you to hear about this!"

Several bags of assorted snack foods and a few empty glass bottles were scattered all around the carpet near the couch, Endymion holding a half-empty bottle of a yellow liquid in his left hand to soon be added to the collection. Typically, the Prince's private chambers had not so much as a single piece of lint out of place, but Endymion's depression had caused him to lose focus on such things temporarily.

"Because it's insignificant and it doesn't matter, and I don't want you to worry about it." He lifted the bottle up to his mouth and took a quick drink out of it. "We're having a fight, and she decided to take drastic measures because she was upset with me. But she's going to move back in and everything's going to be fine. A few days, probably."

Absentmindedly, he stepped on one of the bags, a loud collection of crunching filling the air as Endymion's foot caused thousands of little fractures in the contents. He jumped at the sound, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up a bit at the abrasive sound.

"...that was the holographic projector, I'm watching something," he muttered into the communicator. "Sorry, I'm turning the volume down now." He sighed, frowning down at the collection of chip shards now spilled out onto the carpet. "You don't need to come down here for this, it's not a big deal! And it's between me and her anyway, we're resolving this. Just give me some time."

He took another swig out of the glass bottle.

"Okay, then come down, that's fine, but I am handling this, and everything is fine. We've had a disagreement, it blew up a bit, and now we just need some time to mend things." He bobbled his head to the left and right. "I can't believe it either, but she did it. But I'm dealing with it." He nodded a couple times. "Alright, see you when you get here. But really, I've got this."

He pressed his thumb into the center of the communicator, and with a sigh, fell to the floor, landing heavily next to one of the bags of food. He picked it up, absentmindedly reaching into it and pulling out a thin, hard crisp. He lifted it to his mouth and shoved it in.

After taking a moment to chew and digest the snack, he reached up to feel his cheeks, brushing his fingertips against the hard stubble that had built up. He lifted the bottle up in front of him, staring at the yellow liquid as he tilted the bottle around.

He blinked a few times, just staring at the beverage. Slowly, his gaze tilted down to the communicator, still in his hand, the earpiece cord trailing up to the side of his head.

Suddenly, his fingers quickly began running along the outside rim of the communicator disc, before pressing in on the center button. He leaned his head back, looking up at the ceiling.

"Kunzite, you free to talk for a little bit?" Endymion asked. "Hey, so, I just had an idea. It's...it's pretty complex, and it's not going to be easy to pull off, but it's an idea. I want to run it past you. It's rough, but I think it's doable in a general sense."

He twisted himself around and got back to his feet.

"Okay, so...first question," Endymion said, glancing over towards the bedroom door. "Do you happen to know which Earth prisons hold the highest population of prisoners awaiting execution?"

"

"Look, my answer is no, this is _my_ bedroom!" Endymion snapped, poking his head out through the small gap he was permitting between his bedroom door and the wall, scowling out at the eight large men in white uniforms. All of them looked rather cowed by the aggressive Earth Prince. Each of the men carried a large brown crate.

"Your Highness, we've been given orders from Princess Serenity to collect her belongings from your bedroom," one of the men closest to the door stated, giving him a pleading look.

"Well, I'm giving you orders to forget those orders! I'm not letting any of you in here!" he hissed.

He sighed. "Your Majesty, I...this is all none of my business, but you're putting us in a difficult situation. Just, please, let us in, she wants her clothes and some of her framed pictures. We were actually hoping you could help point out what's hers, since we don't know. She said you'd be okay with this."

Endymion sighed, settling himself back down, soothing the burning in his head. "Guys. I appreciate the fact that you're trying to follow orders, but these orders will be wasting your time. You move all her stuff up to the Moon, in five days you'll be moving it all back here! Just trust me on that. Now, you do not have my permission to enter my bedroom, please, leave the palace."

Before they could protest again, he shut the door and locked it with his right hand's thumb. He gave an irritated grunt, turning around to look around at his depressingly-underpopulated bedroom. Hands on his hips, he frowned, then marched forward, heading back over towards the couch close to the balcony door.

"Actually sending movers," he muttered under his breath darkly. "What kind of...like she doesn't...ugh…"

He heavily threw himself down on the couch, mildly seething, face etched with wrinkles of frustration. No sooner had his body hit the cushioned furniture than he heard a loud series of knocks from his bedroom door. He jumped to his feet and stormed over to the door, feet pressing down hard into the carpeted floor with each step.

"I thought I was being very clear just now!" Endymion yelled at the door, marching towards it and grabbing the knob. "But—"

He yanked the door open, revealing the tall, broad-chested, white-haired frame of his senior guardian, causing him to startle a bit and quickly close his mouth.

"Afternoon to you as well," Kunzite said dryly, watching Endymion's angered expression melt a little bit.

"...s-sorry," Endymion replied meekly. "Thought you were someone else."

Kunzite pointed his right hand down the hall. "What was that all about?"

"Oh, um...nothing, nothing important, come in," Endymion said, beckoning forward. Kunzite entered the bedroom. After securely shutting the door, Endymion leaned up close to Kunzite's right ear. "So, how'd it go?" Endymion whispered.

"It's done," Kunzite replied. "All of it."

"Oh...wow," Endymion gasped. "With a few days to spare, too."

"It was certainly not easy, and I still have to forge some documentation to cover some things up, but...I believe it's worked." Kunzite nodded.

Endymion lightly tapped his right palm against Kunzite's chest a couple times. "Kunzite, I...I knew I was asking a lot of you this time. This goes for Nephrite and Zoisite as well, of course. I just want you to know I really, really appreciate you actually pulling this off. And I know it didn't sit well with you to be away from me for such an extended period of time, so thank you for agreeing to that. You've really gone above and beyond with this one."

Kunzite gave a small smile. "Just doing my job."

"No, this was beyond your job," Endymion insisted. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Kunzite. I want all three of you to make sure you take some days of rest and relaxation, it could _not_ have been easy, making this happen. You all need a break."

"Will do, Your Highness," Kunzite answered. "Now, it's been awhile since we've seen each other, so I must ask, how are things here?"

Endymion's facial expression immediately hardened, reminded of the less-than-ideal situation around him now. "Father came to discuss things a couple times, I think he's starting to get worried." He rolled his eyes, then turned away from his guardian, stalking forward towards the center of his room. "Serenity...I didn't expect her to have moved back in by now, but...twenty days now since she left, and she still won't even listen to a word I have to say! She won't answer when I call her communicator, she changed the lock on her bedroom door so my thumbprint won't open it anymore, just...those were movers!" He spun around, gesticulating wildly towards the bedroom door. "She actually sent movers down here to get her things! I can understand threatening it, she has a right to be upset, but...actually sending them?!"

Kunzite nervously glanced across the room. "You...you actually went up to the Moon Palace?"

Endymion glowered over towards the balcony doors. "She didn't even tell me to go away. I was just standing there knocking on the door, talking to myself. I don't know how long it was." He pushed out a rattled groan.

"Your Highness, I...are you sure it was really a good idea, trying to push things so aggressively?" Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest.

"Obviously, it wasn't," he admitted tersely. "I just figured, by now, that...that she'd at least start trying to open up a dialogue! Make a little headway into mending things! Twenty days!"

Kunzite pursed his lips, giving a sideways glance over towards the large windows at the back of the room.

"For all the mistakes that I made, can't she at least realize that I did all of this for her?!" he grumbled. "I—"

The communicator on the bedside table suddenly began giving a dull little tone, quickly drawing Endymion's attention. He sprinted over, almost skidding into the table before snatching the round device up and looking at the center of it. Eyes widening, he quickly pressed his thumb into the center of the disc and lifted it to his mouth. "Serenity! I—"

"Endymion, don't say anything," Serenity's feminine voice came through the transmitter. Endymion quickly slapped his mouth shut, staring down at the communicator. "Just listen. So, I had a group of men sent down to the Earth Palace to collect my things from your room, and they just called and told me something rather interesting."

Endymion's forehead knitted together, a minorly-pronounced scowl developing on his features as he glared down at the communicator.

"They said that you wouldn't let them in your room," she continued. "Endymion, I've been up on the Moon for twenty days now, I would like my things. You need to act like an adult, like I said last time we met. That was part of the deal."

Endymion started to squeeze the communicator tightly in his right hand, knuckles going white as he applied great pressure on the device with his fingers.

"I'm going to give you tonight to cool off, and then send them back tomorrow. I expect you to cooperate. And in a few days, when I request that the rest of the midwives be allowed to move up here, I expect you'll cooperate with that as well. You need to accept the way things are now and control yourself, or else this will become much more unpleasant for you."

The soundwave hologram flickered off as the call was disconnected. Endymion, with a frustrated growl, managed to crack the casing of the communicator with his grip, and then with a primal grunt, spun around and coiled his right arm back, hurling the device in frustration over towards the windows.

Almost immediately after leaving his hand, the broken communicator was neatly caught in Kunzite's, the white-haired general having moved up a few steps behind the Prince during Serenity's call. Endymion just stared at his guardian for several beats, eyes still alight with the flames of anger, before he finally hunched over and gave a heavy sigh.

"I'll...get you a new one," Kunzite said, glancing down at the damaged communicator.

The Prince slowly nodded. "Thank you," he said meekly. The scowl gently faded into a frown of sadness.

Kunzite went over to his charge, gently rubbing his shoulder. "Why don't you go...take a cold bath or something, Your Majesty? Just calm down. There's no longer any reason to rush into getting her back."

He gave a tiny little nod. "Right."

"Let's just...hold in a little tactical retreat for awhile, let her have her things back tomorrow, and just wait for her to make the first move."

He gave a tension-releasing groan. "Mmhm."

"Let's just...not do anything drastic for now. Rock the boat. We can afford to just wait her out," Kunzite assured him. "Let her have space for as long as she feels she needs it."

Endymion gave a defeated little nod. "Sure."

"

"I'm telling you, man," Aku said sternly, shaking his head back and forth slowly. "They've got to make some kind of trade for depth on defense. If they could somehow just get a fourth guy on the third line who knows how to prevent penetration and can disrupt charges, they can go all the way this year."

"How do they get that without giving up Mayar?" Neil asked. "I don't want to lose Mayar for a reserve player, give it two years and he'll probably be one of the three best midfielders in the league."

The two middle-aged men were both clad in tight, light grey uniforms, with holstered weapons at their hips, sitting on a stone bench just about ten paces away from the towering green hedgewall that encircled the entire Moon Palace. Another of the many imports from Earth, as greenery was not native to the Moon, it was the first line of defense against intruders. It's thick makeup of green leaves and brown branches made it a moderately adequate barrier, although it served as a decoration primarily, with actual protection left largely to the stone walls closer to the palace.

"Yeah, but they could win the title this year, and you never know with the young ones. Imagine if we could trade Mayar for a reserve defender and a middling prospect, and then in three years Mayar isn't even getting playing time. That kind of stuff happens all the time." Aku nodded. "It's worth it, we'd at least be competing for the title for the next two years until Himanshu is too old."

"Maybe," Neil conceded.

Suddenly, a section of the hedge wall began to shift around and shake about. Quickly, the two guards jumped to their feet, spreading their stances out and glueing their eyes to the disturbance. Both of them withdrew their firearms from their holsters and trained them on the shifting wall-section. Neil turned a powerful flashlight on his chest on, putting the beam of light on the hedge.

"Someone there?!" Aku called out. "Show yourself! Now!"

"D-don't shoot, it's okay!"

A moment later, a tall, thin, male figure began pushing himself out from the foliage, several green leaves stuck to his clothes and in his hair. With a final push, he managed to lurch forward out onto the concrete walkway, nearly falling over. Both guards stared in awe for a beat, and then quickly lowered their weapons to the side, as Neil's light revealed quite clearly who it was.

"Prince Endymion?!" Aku gasped, as the surprise intruder reached up to comb the loose leaves out of his hair with his fingers.

"Y-yes, it's me," he said. Both guards quickly dropped to one knee, Endymion immediately beckoning them up. "It's fine, get up."

Both got back to a standing position, then approached him slowly, expressions of shock on their faces. "S-sir, Your Highness, what...are you okay?!" Neil asked.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." He brushed off the front of his tunic with his hands. "I...I just wanted to see Serenity."

"Uh...okay," Neil said uneasily. "Did the palace garage not answer your hails, or something?"

"Oh, well, here's the thing," Endymion said, coming up closer to the two guards. "I don't know if you two have noticed, but lately, me and her have been...having problems."

"I was wondering why she moved back into the palace," Aku admitted. "But it's above my pay grade, so I wasn't asking questions."

"Yeah, it's been a little rocky. Please, don't tell anyone I said this, I'm trying to keep it low-profile, but...we're having problems." Endymion put his hands out towards the two.

"I'm married, Your Highness, I know how it can be sometimes," Neil said. "And of course, I won't be saying a word. Secret safe with me."

"So, basically, I don't want her to know I'm here. I parked my ship outside the palace grounds, and I was going to just walk over. I have a little bit of an idea, I think it'll work. She's probably asleep by now, right?" Endymion looked off into the distance, over towards the palace, able to make out the top half of it above the assorted barriers.

"She has to be," Aku agreed.

"Right, so, I wanted to climb up to her balcony," Endymion said, as if it was the most normal suggestion in the world. "She's got that big lemon tree that goes right up to the balcony, so I can climb up it and get onto the balcony right outside her room."

Neil gave a shocked look. "You...you want to climb up that lemon tree?"

"Sure," Endymion said. "I've...climbed things before, I can do it."

"It's...pretty high up," Aku pointed out nervously. "And the stump goes up really high, there aren't going to be very many branches until you get way up."

"I can manage it," Endymion said assuredly. "Look, it'll be really romantic. She'll wake up tomorrow morning, get out of bed, and then she'll see me standing on the balcony. I think she'll really like that."

"You're planning on...staying out on the balcony all night?" Neil questioned disbelievingly.

"Sure, not a big deal," Endymion said, shrugging. "Look, I really think this is going to help me get this marriage back on track."

"Admittedly, it does sound...pretty romantic," Aku acknowledged after a couple beats, putting his hand up to his chin. "Like one of those old-time romance films."

Neil thought for a moment, giving a crooked little smile. "Well, when you put it like that...yeah, I could see that. Maybe I should try that next time I'm in hot water."

"Hey, Neil, I'll keep watch over here, can you escort the Prince over to the palace? Just make sure nobody else gets in his way." Aku gestured over towards his colleague.

"I-it'd be my honor," Neil said, beckoning towards Endymion. "Your Highness, whenever you're ready."

Endymion put his right hand up towards the palace. "Lead the way."

"

A determined look on his face, Endymion gave a soft little grunt as he lifted his left hand up over his head, as high as he could, and pressed the business-end of the piton into the thick wood trunk of the tree. He tapped his thumb on the opposite end of the little stick, and a tiny, yet sturdy steel rod fired out and embedded into the wood. Capable of supporting a lot of weight despite its tiny size, Endymion was able to use it as leverage as he hoisted him up another arm-length up the large tree.

Like the hedge, the tree was also imported from Earth, with very precise and detailed care being applied to it over the centuries so that it would actually grow and survive on the Moon. It had been grown very precisely so that it would have branches hanging right by the back balcony of the Princess's bedroom, so that it would be easy for her to pluck lemons from it for her morning tea. A similar tree was positioned by the back balcony of the Queen's bedroom as well.

The Prince, having shed the need to put up a good front and act friendly with the guards no longer around, was back to grumbling to himself aimlessly as he climbed.

"Much more unpleasant for me…" he muttered darkly, his right arm rising up to plant the climbing piton as high as he could get it. "Much more unpleasant for me...stupid...stubborn...I'll show…"

He didn't dare look down, as he could do math well enough to know he was uncomfortably high up, and that should he make a mistake on his ascent and fall, things would not end well for him. The higher he got up, the more he started to question his decision to do this at all, but he blocked out such doubt by just continuing to approach the thick head of the tree.

Another thrust of his piton loosened up a little collection of tree sap, causing it to flood down his arm. With a grunt, he tried to wipe his forearm off on the tree bark, but found the sticky substance to be quite resistant to his attempts to get it off his skin. Groaning, he decided to just focus on the climb, and lifted himself up to the first thick branch of the tree top.

Twisting his head around, he saw the back balcony, with a glass door leading into Princess Serenity's bedroom, the branch leading him right to it. Delicately, trying to not make noise, he managed to hoist himself over to this branch. Giving it a couple of gentle prods, he judged it as being reasonably study, and wrapped his arms around it after mounting it. Slowly, finger-length by finger-length, he began to inch himself forward across it.

Slowly pushing his way through leafy branches, trying to ignore the unwelcome sensation of loose fronds getting inside his clothes, he stopped every couple secundas to try to judge how the branch was holding his weight. Slowly but surely, however, he made his way to the little deck, focused very intently on not tilting his head downward for any reason.

He was almost there, just a couple more arm-lengths to go, when he suddenly heard an abrasive cracking, and could feel the branch drop just a little bit. Eyes widening in panic, he immediately shuffled himself forward as fast as he could, clearly detecting his added weight causing the bough to strain. Luckily for him, he was able to swing his legs down to land on top of the handrail along the outside edge of the small deck, and then quickly jump down onto the actual balcony. The branch snapped back up a bit, no longer subject to increased gravity due to the Prince's body.

Quickly, he turned around, easily crossing the deck over to the glass door. The balcony was significantly smaller than the one attached to his room, only enough room for a few people. He pressed his face up to the window, peering inside, finding that for all the noise he had no doubt produced on his dangerous ascent, his wife remained asleep.

Glancing back and forth, then going back to the ledge and looking down at the palace backyard far below him, he then took a moment to look down and regard himself. He wiped some sweat off of his face, before realizing that the tree sap was still on his hands. Moaning in annoyance, he tried to wipe the fluid off, to no avail. He tugged his clothes around, trying to find and remove all the bits of plant life that had latched onto him during his journey.

It quickly became obvious that there would be no fixing his appearance right now, and soon, the exhausted Crown Prince simply laid down on the floor of the deck, rolled over, and closed his eyes.


	27. Cornered Rabbit

Chapter 27: Cornered Rabbit

Serenity gently shifted her head around on her pillow, eyelids fluttering open. She had finally had enough of laying down in a semi-conscious state, drifting between dreams and reality, and decided to firmly plant herself on the latter side. Blinking away her drowsiness, she lifted her head up, glancing around her bedroom, finding it largely vacated, as she had when she had fallen asleep.

Rolling over, she found her way out from underneath the sheets, her half-naked body tilting up into a standing position as her feet found the carpet. She absentmindedly ran her fingers through her loose, long hair, instinctively reaching up to try to locate the spherical buns atop her head, not yet there until she actually made them.

She turned towards the bathroom door, gaze passing across the back of her room, briefly glancing out the balcony door, at her husband slowly getting to his feet on the deck. She took a couple of slow steps towards the bathroom, pushing her long strands of hair out of her face, before she froze in place, eyes going wide.

She whisked her head back to look at the balcony, where Endymion was slowly rising to his full height. She blinked down hard a few times, expecting that one of these times he was going to disappear and she could get back to her morning routine. But all he did was turn around, look at her scantily-dressed figure, and give an awkward smile and wave.

"Hi," he called out, voice muted by the thick panes of glass.

Serenity was so shocked, she still couldn't come up with any words, just staring with her jaw halfway to the floor. Endymion glanced about, looking a little sheepish and meek.

Finally regaining control of her body and remembering how furious she was with her husband, Serenity stalked over to her balcony door. "Endymion?!" she gasped out, jaw clenched, still too shocked to summon up the amount of anger that she would have liked. She stopped just a couple steps away from the door, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Morning," Endymion called out.

"You...what did you...how did…" she stammered, glancing around at the back balcony for a moment, as if expecting to find something else that might explain things. She then gave her husband a quick examination with her eyes. "What's that in your hair?!"

Endymion reached up, pushing his fingers into his thick head of black hair. He managed to push a couple of small twigs out, sending them clattering to the ground.

"Uh, thank you," he said, still trying to fix his hair, which was uneven and pressed down.

"Did you...did you climb up the tree?!" Serenity demanded, pointing at the large branch looming right by the balcony guardrail.

"Yes," he replied matter-of-factly, giving up on his hair, and looking down at his front. He started pulling loose leafs out of his tunic, Serenity just watching in abject shock.

"Are you absolutely _insane_?!" Serenity snapped, putting her arms out to his sides. "You climbed the lemon tree?!"

"It's a pretty sturdy tree," Endymion replied conversationally, pointing at it over his shoulder with his thumb. "I might have snapped the branch a bit on my way over though, sorry. I think it'll be fine."

"You...Endymion, I, what in the…" She gave her head a violent shake, blonde hair fluttering in every direction. "What are you doing here?!"

"I wanted to see you," Endymion answered. "Can I come in?"

"Wh-No! No, you can't come in! I don't want you here!" she shouted. "I don't want to see you, go away!" She emphatically pointed over towards the tree branch. "Go down the way you came!"

"Oh, no, sorry sweetie, I don't think that's a good idea." He turned around, looking at the massive tree, spying a couple lemons hanging from the end of the branch. "I don't think that'd be very safe."

Serenity scowled, hands curling into fists at her sides. "You climbed up that way, you can climb down that way!"

"No, no, I'll...I'll just hang out here," Endymion said, stepping back slightly. "I'm okay out here."

"What?!" Serenity snapped. "No, that's not...no! Go away! You can't stay here!"

"Serenity, I'm not climbing down this tree!" Endymion said, sounding almost jovial. "It's fine, I'll be alright by myself!" He walked over to the balcony railing, reaching up towards the branch towards one of the hanging lemons.

"Hey, w-wait!" Serenity cried out, Endymion neatly plucking the lemon from the tree. "You can't...that's my—"

Endymion began to dig his thumbnails into the lemon's skin, peeling the thick outer layer off to expose the soft, juicy insides. Serenity watched, mouth open and forehead scrunched in mild disgust, as Endymion lifted the lemon up to his mouth and began to gnaw at the soft pulp.

"I...how can you _stand_ that?!" Serenity asked, almost in awe of her estranged husband as his face scrunched up in protest of the strong, sour taste. She couldn't quite take her eyes off Endymion for several beats as he sucked the juice from the small lemon, but then finally remembered that she didn't care, and spun around on her heel, looking around the room frantically.

She stormed over to her bedside table, quickly coming up next to it and grabbing her communicator. She was about to twist the dials on the outside, but just before her fingers began, she froze, tilting her head down in thought. After a moment's consideration, it seemed rather unlikely that the Moon Palace Guard would be willing to toss Endymion out, given that he was now the Prince of the Kingdom just as much as she was the Princess. She frowned, closing her eyes to try to think.

A rattling series of knocks caused her to jump and spin around, finding Endymion tapping his knuckles against the glass door. "Hey, Serenity?"

"What?!" she snapped, putting her hands on her hips after setting the communicator back down.

"I, I, uh...I kind of…" he furtively pointed over towards the bathing chamber door on the right side of the bedroom. "I need to…"

She gave a very loud groan of frustration. "Endymion!" She stomped her bare foot into the carpet beneath her.

"I mean...I can go over the rail, but someone would probably see, and that would look strange and be hard to explain," he said. "It's up to you."

She fumed, staring daggers over at Endymion, who seemed unfazed by her overt anger. After a few beats, he just shrugged.

"Uh, alright, I'll just…" he turned around, stepping over to the ledge of the balcony. Serenity quickly stomped over to the glass door as Endymion started to reach down towards his waist.

"Stop!" she shouted, grabbing the knob and practically ripping the door open. Endymion froze, twisting to look over his shoulder as she poked her head outside, scowling deeply.

"Hm?"

She stared at him for a couple beats, finally forcing herself to concede a small degree. "Use my bathroom, and then go away," she said sternly.

"Thank you," Endymion said, giving an earnest nod as he came back over, grabbing the top of the glass door. Serenity tried to hold it close to her, glowering up at Endymion's face.

"I mean it," she said. "Use my bathroom, and then go back to Earth."

"Serenity, I hear you," Endymion insisted, which was enough to get Serenity to release her grip on the door. As he entered her room, she ran out onto the balcony, looking over at the lemon tree. She bent forward over the railing, looking up and down the length of the towering trunk.

Unable to find any obvious damage, she straightened herself back up and inhaled deeply, trying to push her annoyance and frustration out with a massive huff of breath. She glanced down at the assorted leaves and twigs that Endymion had scattered about with his intrusion.

Shaking her head and murmuring to herself, she walked back inside, shutting the door behind her, just as Endymion was closing the bathroom door behind him. She went over to the round table a few steps away from the back balcony door, falling back heavily into one of the leather chairs surrounding it.

"

Kristen handed the awake and alert Chibiusa over to Princess Serenity, smiling cheerfully as she bowed. "Only woke up once the whole night, Your Highness."

Serenity gave a quick nod. "Yes, good, we can discuss how she's doing later, if it's nothing urgent." She jerked her head forward. "I'm in the middle of something."

Kristen's smile shrunk by a couple teeth, blinking in confusion. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, taking a couple large steps back out of the bedroom.

"No no, it's not you, I'm just a little...stressed, don't think about it, it's not your fault," Serenity said, sounding distracted as she hugged the young child to her side. Kristen nodded, reaching over to shut the door. Serenity, bending over to kiss Chibiusa's head, turned to scowl over at her bathroom door.

Out of patience, she marched over, careful to keep her daughter steady in her arms as she swiftly crossed the room. "What is taking him so long?" she muttered to herself, aggressively lunging forward to grab the knob and open the door.

As soon as the inside of the chamber was visible to her, she gasped. The large bathing basin, a pit sunk into the tiled floor, was filled to near-capacity with water, the surface covered by a layer of white soap bubbles. Endymion's head and shoulders were visible above the soap, the rest of his body submerged in the bath. All of his clothes was piled up in the corner of the room.

"Hey!" she snapped, holding back on unleashing her full verbal capabilities due to Chibiusa being in her arms. "What are you doing?!"

"What you told me to do," Endymion replied. "I'm using your bathroom."

"I...I meant...I didn't…"

"Serenity, I climbed up a giant tree and slept outside all night," Endymion complained. "I've got hardened sap everywhere, I slept in my own sweat, I can't just walk all through the palace looking like this!"

"Sure you can," she said darkly, Chibiusa wildly fidgeting about in her arms at the sight of her father.

"Hey, how's my little bunny?" he asked, waving his hand over at Chibiusa after reaching his arm up above the water level.

She frowned, but backed out of the bathing chamber nevertheless. "Alright, finish up and get out of here." With that order, she winged the door shut.

"

Serenity leaned her right elbow against the surface of the wooden circular table, head resting in her hand, a scowl on her features. Every handful of beats, she would glance over at the white door that separated her bedroom from the bathroom, stare at it briefly, and then turn away. Chibiusa was about a half-dozen paces away, in a fenced-off little playpen, crawling around, entirely oblivious to the tension between her mother and father.

Serenity sighed, watching her daughter push a large white ball across the floor, watching it roll to the opposite side of the pen, then go chase it.

"By Diana, I hope you didn't get his mental stability," she said quietly.

Finally, the bathroom door swung open, and Endymion emerged. He was tugging on the front of his tunic, pulling it downward. Serenity crossed her right leg over her left.

"Alright, Endymion, congratulations, you've ruined my morning, now get out of here!" she hissed, his casual, friendly expression only irritating her more.

"We should have left a couple of my outfits up here," he thought aloud. "Nothing's worse than having to put dirty clothes back on right after bathing."

"You took forever," she muttered through gritted teeth.

"Well, Serenity, it's not easy to get tree sap out of hair," Endymion said informationally, strolling over to the table that Serenity was seated at. He stopped by the pen, looking down at his daughter for a moment, then reaching down towards her. Serenity jumped to her feet and ran over, grabbing his long, slender arm and pushing it away.

"Stay away from her!" she demanded crossly, trying to shove herself between her husband and the pen walls.

"Serenity, come on," Endymion said exasperatedly. "She's my daughter too. What do you think I'm going to do?" Nevertheless, he backed away from her, instead opting to go over to the table and reach over to the bowl of fruit, plucking a plump orange from it.

"Endymion! What do you think you're doing?!" Serenity said, keeping her voice down while maintaining a decent degree of maliciousness in her hissing tone. "I told you to go away, now go!"

"Serenity, all I had for breakfast this morning was a lemon," Endymion said, fingernails making quick work of peeling the soft outer shell of the orange away in large strips. "Give me a break." He sat down in one of the chairs surrounding the table.

"Are you forgetting everything we've talked about recently?!" she snapped. "Endymion, I don't want you here! I don't care about your breakfast! Please, just leave!"

Endymion's playful smirk fell off his face, and he sighed deeply. "Um, right. About that, Serenity." He looked over at his wife. "That's just not going to work for me."

The anger lines were whisked off her face, replaced by abject shock at his outright dismissal of her demands. "Excuse me?"

"Serenity. We're still married. I'm still your husband. And I have every right to be here if I want to be. This palace is just as much mine as it is yours now. And more than that, I certainly have the right to be around my daughter if I want to be," he said, voice now low and neutral, almost gentle.

"We...we are getting a separation!" Serenity huffed indignantly. "I thought I made myself clear last time we spoke!"

"Well, I'm not going to agree to that," Endymion replied, picking up a tiny fruit knife from the table right next to the fruit bowl. He began to carve a slice of the orange out of the sphere. "It's not in either of our best interests." He gave her a meaningful look. "And I think you realize that."

Serenity's glare faltered a bit as she gave a helpless look down at the floor, but just as quickly she regained her anger. "Maybe, but...that doesn't mean I want you around!"

"Be that as it may, I have a right to be around if I want to be." He put a wedge of the orange into his mouth.

"Endymion. Are we really doing this?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

After swallowing, he gave a slow little nod. "I don't really know what 'this' is supposed to be, sweetie, but...well, I'm not agreeing to a separation, and I'm not accepting any scenario where we remain married but I'm not allowed to see you or my daughter." He shrugged.

"Fine." She marched over to the bedside table, moving with purpose and urgency. "I tried to be fair, I offered you a good deal, but you leave me no choice." She ripped her communicator up off the charger and then went back over to the table where Endymion was slowly consuming the orange.

"Serenity, think very hard about what you're about to do," Endymion said slowly.

The Moon Princess came up right in front of her husband, holding the communicator out towards him. "No, _you_ think hard about what you're about to do! Because your freedom depends on it. I am going to call down to the mines, right now, and tell them to go investigate section three-one-four."

"How are you going to explain that?" Endymion asked.

Serenity blinked a few times, glancing around at the table in front of her. "You've got bigger problems than worrying about that. Because, after they find what's down there, I'm going to call your father. And I'm going to tell him everything."

Endymion gave a quick nod, slicing another portion of the orange off. "Very well."

"I mean _everything_ , Endymion," Serenity continued. "I'm going to tell him what you've been doing. Do you understand what that'll mean for you?"

Endymion gave an eased, casual smile. "Do you understand what that'll mean for you?"

She gave him a frustrated look, then began to spin the dial on her communicator. "Alright, fine! Well, you can't say I didn't warn you." She pulled the cord out of the side of the device, plugging the earbud into her ear.

Endymion finished off the orange, glancing back over towards Chibiusa, still blissfully unaware of the high-stakes threats being tossed back and forth just a few steps away.

"Morning, this is Princess Serenity," she said into her communicator, holding it up in front of her mouth. "No, no, not today. No, I have a request." She paced away from the table a bit, turning her back to the Prince.

Endymion stood up, meandering over to the pen again, bending over and picking up Chibiusa.

"There's something...something down there that I want to be investigated, as soon as possible," Serenity continued. "Section three-one-four." She paused for an extended period of time, slowly turning back around and jumping up a bit at the sight of Endymion holding the young baby. She hurried over, waving her free arm over towards him, pointing emphatically down at the pen. "Put her back!" she hissed in a low whisper.

"Serenity, I'm her father," Endymion said pleadingly. "Come on."

Serenity gave him a nasty stare, but ultimately turned back away from him, lifting the device back to her mouth. "I...I've been having dreams lately, about that area of the mines. Several nights in a row now. I just want to see if anything is actually down there. If there is, maybe I have some...you know, mystic powers that I don't know about, you know?" She again paused for several long beats. "Yes, section three-one-four, investigate it and see what you can find. Call me back as soon as you've finished searching the area with your results, I'm...I'm interested to see if maybe I have some sort of abilities. Thank you." She pressed the center of the disc, yanking the earpiece out of her ear.

"You're pretty good at that whole lying thing yourself, actually," Endymion joked.

"Shut up! And put her down!" She demanded, pointing over at the pen.

"Serenity, I should be allowed to hold my daughter if I want to," Endymion insisted, rubbing her back and hugging her close to his chest. "I'm not here to hurt her or take her away from you, I would never do that."

She gave a rattled, extended sigh. "Well. I guess it doesn't matter. One way or another, you'll be out of here soon." She walked over to the bathroom door. "I'm going to go clean myself up. You're free to come to your senses any time now and leave." She spun around, pointing powerfully over towards Chibiusa. "Not with her!"

Endymion nodded. "Understood, sweetie."

"And stop calling me that!" she ordered, heavily swinging the bathroom door open. "Endymion, I'm _not_ joking around. Any time now, the miners are going to find that imperium vein. As soon as they call me about it, I'm calling your father, unless you leave. I will ruin your life, Endymion. Think about that while I'm in here."

With that, she stepped inside the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her, the crack of the impact startling Chibiusa enough to make her a little anxious. With a melancholy little smile on his face, Endymion began impassively trying to cheer her up.

"

"You used up all the hot water," Serenity grumbled, marching out of the bathroom, hair now done up in her trademark buns, wearing a casual dress gown.

"Hey, you know where there's a bathroom that has unlimited hot water?" Endymion asked, watching her angrily storm back over to where he was seated. "My bedroom on Earth."

"Shut up!" she barked, staring him down. He had, at the least, put Chibiusa back in the playpen, but his undesired presence remained. She stopped by the fence of the pen, crossing her arms back over her chest. "Are you really going to do this?" She swung her arm over towards the bedroom door across the chamber. "I am giving you an out! How can you honestly—"

The communicator began ringing, giving off a series of little tones. She quickly rushed towards it, scooping it up off the table surface and hurriedly pressing the center of the device. "Hello?"

"Princess Serenity, is that you?" a male voice came out from the speaker, the communicator projecting the audio out in all directions with the earpiece not being activated.

"Yes, yes, Princess Serenity here!" She gave Endymion a triumphant look, finally feeling as if she had turned the situation in her favor.

"Your Highness, I'm calling to follow up about your call earlier this morning, asking us to investigate a certain area of the tunnels," he continued.

"Yes, I remember, what's up?" she asked.

"Well, after our conversation this morning, I did some research. Turns out, that area was marked as unstable and potentially dangerous quite some time ago. We had a slew of miners go down that way and never come back."

Serenity swallowed visibly, glancing over at Endymion. "Alright."

"So, it took us a little while. We had to get out a mechanized rover and have it lead the way. Doesn't work that well down there, all the rock interferes with the signal from the remote. Sorry it took us so long to get back to you."

"Not a problem, no trouble at all," Serenity said quickly. "So...what's down there?" She again turned her gaze over to Endymion.

"Well, I've got the report right in front of me. Good news is, nobody died or went missing, everyone who went down is accounted for. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything of note."

Serenity's confident smile faded, head jerking away from the communicator slightly. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

"The report said they found a giant cavern, and obviously they have to do some drilling to actually find out what's underneath the rock, but...initial findings are nothing of note."

Serenity turned away a bit, looking at her husband out of the corner of her eyes. "Uh...h-how long will it take for you to finish your search through the section?"

"Oh, if you mean an initial exploration, we've already completed that. Ran into a dead end and everything, it looks like," he explained. "If you'd like, I can keep you updated on our progress as we dig deeper. This was actually an area we planned on searching cycles ago but put it off, so this didn't inconvenience us or anything."

Serenity put the communicator up in front of her face, staring at it, mouth dropping open. "B-but...wait…"

She startled a bit when Endymion placed his hands on her shoulders, leaning up over her head towards the device's microphone. "My apologies, sir. Princess Serenity has a very active imagination. Seems to have gone to a pretty bizarre place this time." With that, he reached underneath her arm and pressed the button on the center of the disc, ending the call. "Hm, looks like that career as a mystic you were considering might not be going anywhere, honey."

Serenity, briefly stunned into silence, slowly came around to square up to her husband. "Endymion. W-what is the meaning of this?"

Endymion backed up over to the table, falling back into the chair heavily. "You heard the man, honey. Sounds to me like there's nothing down there."

Gradually, she brought her right hand up in front of her, pointing at Endymion. "Endymion. If. If this whole thing was some kind of...if this was some form of joke. If this was all just an act. A...a prank. Then I'm going to, somehow, find a way to be even more furious."

Endymion gave an easy little smile, reaching over to the fruit bowl and pulling out a purple plum. "No, no joke."

"Okay, then you lied about where the imperium is," she said simply, coming over to the table and putting her palms down on it, leaning over towards Endymion. "Endymion, where is it? You owe me the truth. Where. Is it?"

Endymion, after using the little knife to cut a slice of the plum off, just gave an impish shrug. "Well, Serenity. How should I put this?" He thought for a moment. "What I told you was true at the time that I told it to you. And now it isn't."

Serenity's face began to go a light shade of red, the frustration of Endymion's evasive answers and carefree mannerisms starting to wear on her. "What?"

"The imperium vein _was_ there, now it's not," he explained. "I've had it moved."

"Endymion, I can just call the agency and tell them that I have reason to believe that there's imperium down in our mines, and they'll have ten thousand people here today to start drilling until the whole Moon is hollow," Serenity said tersely. "It's going to be found, whether you like it or not, just tell me where it is."

After popping the plum piece into his mouth, he turned to her. "I don't know where it is, actually. Not a clue. Not on the Moon, I know that."

"Endymion, start making sense," she said through gritted teeth, starting to squeeze her fingers unconsciously down into the table surface.

He gave a sweeping glance around the room. "Sweetie, I'm making as much sense as I can. I had the imperium moved to another location, and I'm not aware of what that location is, so—"

Frustration boiling over, Serenity grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl in front of Endymion and reared back with it in her hand, chucking it right at Endymion's head with a grunt. Endymion barely had time to lean back away, and the orange caught him full in the nose, bouncing off into Chibiusa's playpen.

"Ow! Ow!" he whined, reaching up to rub his nose. "Serenity, really?! Throwing things?!"

The Moon Princess took a moment to look down at her right hand, slightly embarrassed over being reduced to such a low-class display of anger.

"In front of my daughter, too," he mumbled.

She gave her head a violent shake. "Endymion, I am not stupid! It is impossible for you to have moved the imperium, not with how much of it exists, according to you! So you were either lying then, or you're lying now! Which is it?!"

"I'm not lying on either count," Endymion said, sounding more serious now, cowed slightly by her orange-throwing. "And it wasn't impossible to move the imperium. Just very, very difficult."

Slowly, Serenity eased herself down into a chair across from her husband, narrowing her eyes over at him. She placed her hands down on the table, folding them together.

"Half-a-cycle ago, I instructed my generals to have all of the imperium in that vein moved from the mines, placed onto a freighter ship, and driven out into deep space. I don't know where the ship is. It moves constantly, controlled by an advanced autopilot system. Only Kunzite knows where it is at any given time." Endymion let his forearms lay flat down on the table.

"That's impossible!" Serenity retorted. "You said...okay...you said there were millions of libras! You expect me to believe your generals could...no, no, you are _not_ lying your way out of this one!"

He nodded. "Millions doesn't even do it justice, actually. But, you're right. My generals could never have moved that amount in that short a period of time." He looked over at her. "So, they had help. A lot of it."

She slowly tilted her head to the right.

"Prison inmates awaiting execution, or with iron-clad life sentences," Endymion explained. "They went around from prison to prison, offering payoffs to their friends and family members in exchange for half-a-cycle of hard labor and an immediate execution after. Most of them were chomping at the bit to say yes, the concept of taking care of your family before you check out is very appealing. And honestly, most of those death sentence prisoners are probably thrilled to get their execution over with. There were over a hundred of them, working constantly, stopping only to eat and sleep. Using massive, state-of-the-art drills to carve the imperium off the cave walls, thousands of libras at a time, then slice it up into little chunks that can be fit into barrels, then moved back up to the surface through the secret entrypoint Kunzite made...quite an operation."

Serenity's neck now began to twitch, boiling over yet again.

"By the Gods, it couldn't have been easy on them. Three men, forging documentation for a large-scale prison labor project that involved great danger for the participants. Keeping control of over a hundred hardened criminals who would take any opportunity to try to escape. Sneaking massive pieces of equipment down there, piece by piece, assembling it on site. Forcing the assembly line to keep moving, no matter what. Sneaking over a million barrels up to the surface at night. Pouring acids all over down in the cavern to simulate erosion so it's not obvious that the entire place has been drilled out. Painstakingly covering up every shred of evidence that anyone, much less over a hundred people, were down there. Handing out a mass execution to every last one when they're done, then disposing of the bodies. Making an F-class freighter ship disappear for us to use. I truly don't know how they pulled it off. Can hardly even consider it. Maybe I don't want to." He shrugged. "But you didn't give us much of a choice. Had to do something to protect you."

"Protect me?" Serenity said, starting to seethe.

"Expensive too," Endymion mused, giving little credence to Serenity's building rage. "Fortunately, I...happen to have a lot of money right now. All that drilling equipment, the barrels, the payoffs, put a real dent in profits." He gave a wistful little sigh. "But, you were being irrational, so I had to take drastic, desperate measures."

"I'm being irrational?" she questioned. "I'm the one being irrational? Which one of us was the one that decided to become an interplanetary criminal _for no reason_?!"

He dipped his head slightly. "Well, be that as it may, that vein was far too valuable to simply hand over to the agency. And if you were thinking straight, you'd realize that, but you're far too caught up in your anger towards me. Once you realize that, then we can have a conversation about what to do with it."

"Endymion," Serenity hissed. "It was on the Moon, you found it before we got married, it's not your decision!"

"Well, I'm doing it for you own good," Endymion insisted. "I'm still your husband, it's my job to protect you. And, technically, all I did was what you told me to do." He paused for a moment. "You said get rid of all the evidence that I was ever down there."

She picked up the entire bowl of fruit in both hands, cocking it up behind her head, Endymion quickly shielding his face with his arms.

"NO! No! Serenity, do not!" he demanded, Serenity just stood there, the bowl high above head head, arms wound up to throw it at him. "Serenity. Don't you dare."

Finally, she brought the bowl back down and set it back on the table. "You know what, Endymion? It doesn't matter!" She picked her communicator back up. "Because I'm turning you in to your father, and if you won't tell _me_ where the imperium is, maybe you'll tell an interrogator aboard _The Savery_!" She began to manipulate the dials on the device.

He gave a curt nod. "Alright, then."

"Endymion, I'm going to tell him everything! I mean it!" She pressed the button on the center of the disc, holding it up to her mouth. "You're going to spend the rest of your life in a prison cell!"

"I heard you the first time," Endymion assured her.

She stared at him in shock and surprise, waiting for the communicator to connect. "You...you are…"

"Hello?"

"Um, hello, Kasios?" Serenity nearly dropped the communicator in shock. "Hello, um, I'd like you to come to my room in the Moon Palace as soon as you can."

"Oh, Serenity, afternoon. W-what's going on? What's in your room?"

She gave Endymion a side glance. "Your son is in my room. I'd like you to tell him he has to leave, I don't want him here."

The communicator emitted nothing, Serenity pacing away from her husband, impatiently awaiting a response. Endymion glanced over, noticing that Chibiusa has taken an interest in the orange that had bounced into her pen, rolling it around.

"Hello? Kasios, you there?" Serenity asked.

"Y-yes, I'm here," Kasios replied, voice clearly wavering. "Serenity, I don't really understand."

"Your son is trespassing in my room, he does not have my permission to be here. Please, just come here and help me!" she demanded.

"Well...Serenity, it's not that simple," Kasios said uneasily. "What is he doing, exactly? What is this about?"

"I-it's…" she swallowed down hard. "It's not necessarily about anything, I just don't want to see him, and he's here without my permission!"

"Um...well, here's the thing, Serenity. If he's just there, then he's not really trespassing, he's...he's got a right to be there. You two are married, and the Moon Palace is as much his as it is yours. And, I...this is tough to explain, Serenity, but I treat my son like an adult. I can't just ground him or tell him what he has to do or anything like that. Unless there's something else you can tell me."

Serenity sighed, giving a frustrated glare over towards her closet door.

"I mean, Gods, I hate to even ask it, but...he hasn't hit you or anything, has he?"

"No, no! No, this isn't about any kind of physical violence, he hasn't hit me. I just don't want to be around him." Serenity bit down on her cheeks.

"Well...Serenity, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. This is between you and him, I'm not comfortable getting involved in something like that. If you like, I could have a talk with him."

Serenity huffed out an exhausted breath. "Can you hold on for a bit, please?" She tapped a button on the communicator, the soundwave being projected above the device turning red and freezing. She turned to Endymion, planting her hands on her hips. "Endymion. Last chance. Leave now, and I'll keep your secrets. You can go back to the Earth Palace, go live out the rest of your life however you want to, inherit the Kingdom in a few years, take on as many mistresses from Venus as you want, just so long as you stay away from me. Otherwise, you're going to lose _everything_."

Endymion wiped his right hand over his mouth. "No, Serenity. I have nothing to lose. You're the one who needs to be weighing the ramifications."

She gave him an incredulous look. "You have nothing to lose?! Have you lost your mind?! Endymion, you're going to spend the rest of your life in a cell! All of the power and money you stand to inherit, gone forever! Gods, you...you could have any woman you want as a mistress! Any one of the hundreds of millions of women on Venus who are all prettier than me, and would probably be totally fine with you being a criminal! Come to your senses!"

He sighed, looking up toward the ceiling, frowning. "Serenity, I don't care about any of that power and money. I don't care about other women. The only things in this galaxy that I care about are you and my daughter. Without those things, it doesn't matter to me if I'm in my room on Earth or in a cell on _The Savery_. So, I say again, I have nothing to lose. Do whatever you have to do."

Serenity stared at him for several long beats, then lifted the communicator to her mouth, pressing the button she had just hit moments before. "Kasios, I...your son is…"

Endymion stared over at her, fingers unconsciously clenching into a fist underneath the table.

"Is…"

A bursting little screech from the playpen caught Endymion's attention, breaking the tension in the room slightly. He got to his feet and went over to the pen, stepping over the short fence delicately to enter the little play area.

"...is really irritating me lately," Serenity managed to force out, watching as Endymion kneeled down and picked Chibiusa up.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Kasios replied after a brief silence. "But don't you think it's time that you and him started trying to work on some sort of reconciliation?"

"No, I...I really don't want to do that," she said, her voice starting to get just a little choked up. "I...I'm really upset with him, and I don't think I'll be wanting to make up with him."

"Hey, look, Serenity, I'll talk to him later today, alright? I'll try to set him straight, help him understand whatever he's doing wrong, and put him on the right course! You two, you two are great together, and it's really best for everyone if you two start patching things up."

Serenity closed her eyes, huffing a strong breath out of her nostrils, squeezing her communicator in her small, slender fingers. "Well. Alright, then," she said in a quiet, low voice. She pressed her index finger down on the center of the disc, tossing it to the side in frustration. Quickly, she marched up to her husband as he high-stepped over the fence, reaching out towards him with both of her hands. She grabbed onto Chibiusa's body, and Endymion quickly released his hold on her.

"Congratulations," she said with a cold smile, taking her daughter and cradling her in her arms, turning away from Endymion. Endymion met her rebuke with a sad little frown and a wistful sigh, eyes flickering towards the ground as she walked away.

"Alright, Serenity," Endymion announced, putting some firmness into his voice. "We can stay here, or we can go back to the Earth Palace. It doesn't make any difference to me. But, most of your things and most of the midwives are on Earth still, so I think it does make a difference to you and to Chibusa."

Serenity turned around, glaring daggers at her husband, every bit of anger and frustration being conveyed in her hateful stare. It hurt him to see, but he took it.

He shrugged. "It's your choice, but as long as we're married, I am _going_ to be a part of your life."

"

Serenity hugged her arms tight to her chest, a heavy scowl on her face, visibly pouting. Sitting up on Endymion's bed, head resting on a stack of pillows, she was clearly displeased with the corner Endymion had placed her in. Had this been over her not getting to eat as much dessert as she wanted, it would have been cute, but the Prince knew better than to take any amusement out of her frustration.

He was sitting on the corner of the bed, head bowed and looking down at his lap. Chibiusa was in the care of Kristen for the moment, leaving the struggling couple alone for a bit. Despite everything that had happened that morning that had so clearly demonstrated how helpless and powerless she was, she was not letting up in the slightest on being as cold as possible towards her husband.

Endymion finally looked up, twisting to look over his shoulder. "Serenity. We're stuck together, and we both know it. And I'm not going to agree to an arrangement where I never see you or my daughter. A separation devastates you and cripples the Moon Kingdom. So, by process of elimination, the best thing we can do is work through this, talk this out, and start making up."

She didn't even look over at him, just staring straight ahead at the wall on the opposite side of the room, arms so tightly constricted around her chest it almost looked painful.

"I know you're upset. You have a right to be. But you need to understand that I was put into a difficult, complicated, unexpected situation. And I acted in a way that is not me. But that's the key phrase. Not me. The things that I did, the person that I became, that's not who I am. I was trying to protect you, protect things that rightfully should be yours from being taken. Yes, it was a mistake, but what I did, I did with good intentions."

Slowly, she cranked her head over to the right slightly, glaring over at Endymion.

"I wanted the Moon to have the opportunity to rise up again as a superpower, on its own merits. I know that you're familiar with the history of your Kingdom, you know what it used to be. I did what I did so that it could climb to those heights again. There is nothing else down there in those mines worth much of anything, we both know that. This vein, this find, was all that it had left to give. And I didn't believe that it was fair that you would be forced to give it up for practically nothing. Yes, I shouldn't have done something as foolish as getting involved in black market imperium smuggling. But I didn't do it because I'm an immoral person. I did it because I love you, and I wanted to protect you. Just like I'm protecting you now."

Serenity turned away from him again, sighing.

"I know, right now, you're frustrated. Angry. But it fades with time. Eventually, you'll feel differently about me. You'll come to realize that I'm right. That I'm still the man that you married, the man that you've known for years. The man that you fell in love with. The man who, because of his love and devotion to you, did something he never should have done. But that can't happen when we're not even on the same planet. I'm sorry about forcing my way into your room this morning, I know it was a dirty trick on my part, but it was necessary. We have to start patching this up. For the sake of not just us, but everyone. Any longer, and my father would have started asking questions that would have ruined everything for all of us."

He got to his feet, accepting that he wasn't going to get any verbal replies from her right now.

"I'll let you work your way into it. I'll be out for most of the day today, give you a bit of space. Just think about what I said. Don't worry about saying anything to me right now, I get it. But we need to start fixing this." With that, he moved over towards the bedroom door. "I'll see you tonight."

With that, he slipped out of the room, leaving Serenity to her thoughts.

"

"So, uh, do you want to tell me what this is about?"

Kasios placed his hand on Endymion's shoulder as the two slowly navigated their way down the wide, high-ceilinged hallway, giving his son a concerned, weary look.

"Oh, there's not really much to say," Endymion said quietly.

"Endymion, buddy, I know women," Kasios said, letting his hand drop back to his side. "I get it. They get emotional, they overreact, they act out, but this, this is very, very strange, son." He pointed down the hallway back in the direction the two had come from. "I feel like I know your wife pretty well. I'm not going to pretend I know her better than you, but this is bizarre for the Serenity that I know. She's been crazy about you for years now! And I get having fights and needing some space, believe me. But actually calling me and trying to get me to come and basically ground you?"

Endymion stopped, tapping his shoes against the spotless tile floor for a second, tilting his head up to look at the ceiling. "Dad, I...I messed up. I wasn't being the most attentive husband, I was ignoring the signs of her being upset, and she decided to, I guess, do something drastic to get my attention."

"Sure, I understand that part of it, but holding on to all that anger after twenty days?" Kasios put his hands on his hips. "Son, if you think your wife needs, like, a professional therapist or something, we can definitely set that up. Maybe she's having some sort of, what do they call it? That thing where a woman gets all depressed and emotional right after giving birth?"

"If I feel like that'll help, I'll definitely look into that, but I don't think that's what it is," Endymion said softly. "It's just normal marriage problems, and I am handling them. She wasn't receptive to anything when we were living separately, so I had to...jam myself in there. I gave her space for as long as I felt I could, but nothing was going to get better if I couldn't be around her. I know it's a bad look, just trust me when I say it had to be done."

Kasios grunted. "Well, the bad look was you two living in different palaces, so I support your decision entirely." He gave a furtive glance down the hall. "Just, resolve this. I did what i could to suppress leaks, but there were definitely rumors that got out about her living in the Moon Palace. That kind of shit, it's not good. I don't need the whole galaxy wondering about something like that, I don't need to be answering questions about it. What I'm saying is, get this under control."

"Believe me, that's all I want as well." Endymion pursed his lips and nodded. "And this how I get that."

"The sooner the better." Kasios clapped Endymion on the back. "Anyway, I did promise Serenity that I'd talk to you about this, so...good talk, I suppose." He pointed at Endymion's face. "Resolve this."

"

Serenity pressed her fingers into her temples and swirled them around, trying to ease the headache borne of aggravation that was currently distracting her. Slowly, she twisted her head around, looking about the massive bedroom that she currently alone occupied.

Crossing her right foot over her left, her mind flitted about between assorted ideas on how she could regain control of her situation. As soon as they entered, they exited, each one easily dismissed as untenable no matter how angry she was.

Suddenly, the snarl of anger flitted off her face, eyes going slightly wide. After a few beats of thought, she reached over to the table by the head of the bed, grabbing her communicator. Quickly, fingers working fast, she spun the dials around.

"

"I can _not_ believe you bet your life on a hunch," Kunzite said exasperatedly, looking at his charge with exhausted eyes, not even able to summon up the stern vexation he would typically express at the Prince on putting so much at risk.

"Not a hunch, Kunzite," Endymion insisted. "A logical and education read of the situation, which by the way, came from one of the smartest people in the galaxy."

"I am quite sure that Zoisite, when he said what he said, was not suggesting that you should go and play a high-stakes game of chicken with Serenity," Kunzite protested. "In fact, I'm sure that he would have vehemently been against you doing such."

"Kunzite, I had an advantage, and I decided to press it," Endymion pointed out. "Like Nephrite said. I made sure that she was aware of the consequences of turning me in, I told her that I didn't care if I went to prison, and I bet on her being rational enough to realize that her hands are tied."

Kunzite heaved a sigh. "You had no guarantee that she would be rational," he huffed, sitting down on the bottom left corner of his bed. "All she had to do was slip up and say a few words to your father, and everything would have been exposed."

"It was a risk I was willing to take," Endymion said, finality in his voice. "Now, let's focus on the relevant parts of things. She didn't turn me in. She had every opportunity to do so, and she couldn't do it. So, she's no longer a concern."

"Yes, for the moment," Kunzite said tersely.

"Well, if not now, when would she ever turn me in?" Endymion asked. "She had my father on call, I was basically daring her to do it, and she didn't!"

"She could very well give in if she has a moment of frustration, Your Highness, don't believe you can control her," Kunzite warned. "I really wish you had listened to me when I said to leave her alone for awhile and give her more space."

"That wasn't an option, my father was close to forcing himself into the situation. Kunzite, this is the way it had to be. I'm sorry it wasn't completely vetted out and guaranteed to be successful, but it had to be done, and ultimately, it worked. And, it might take some time, some effort on my part, but things are going to go back to normal. She can't possibly stay mad forever, it takes too much energy to do that."

Kunzite gave a half-hearted shrug. "Well, what about the imperium? If we're out of the business, then what are we going to do with it?"

Endymion blinked rapidly several times in succession. "I don't know yet. I need to think about that. I still have no intention of re-entering the black market, but...giving it all to the agency at once, that's out of the question. I had to move it out of Serenity's control before she did that, but past that, I don't have a great idea. Possibly, we arrange for the agency to come into possession of it a little at a time, so that they never realize their full leverage. I'm still working on that part."

Kunzite grimaced. "I wish I could say I had a good solution, but...nothing comes to mind."

Endymion nodded. "You just relax for a few days. You've worked very hard lately, and I deeply appreciate everything you managed down in the mines. Honestly, I feel bad for even asking it of you."

"It wasn't as bad as you might think. Cutting-edge technology is capable of some pretty amazing things," Kunzite said casually. "Just, please, Your Majesty, tread lightly with Serenity. Once again, do not assume that you can control her in all areas just because you can control her in some."

"

Serenity fidgeted with the cone-shaped, grey device, about the size of her forearm, twisting the tip around and pressing a couple of buttons along the thick base. A couple of blue indicator lights flashed on along the cone's outside, the tip freely spinning around. She set it down on the table at the back of the room, aiming a lens on the tip over towards the four-poster bed. She slowly moved a little knob back and forth, getting a couple little red beams to emit from the tip and spread away from each other slightly.

Finally satisfied, she tapped a button on the base, getting a light right on the tip to go solid blue. She stood up, then heard a couple of loud knocks at the door.

"Come in," she called out loudly. A moment later, the door swung open, Jadeite entering.

"Afternoon, Princess," Jadeite said casually, looking around the room. "Where is he?"

"Not here," Serenity replied. "Won't be back until later tonight."

Jadeite's forehead wrinkled a bit. "I...I don't understand, I thought he needed me."

"No, it's me that called you up here, not him," she replied, reaching up and undoing her left hair bun.

"Well, sure, I know, but I thought you were...well, nevermind. You need me for something?" he asked, scratching the back of his head, giving her a perplexed look.

"Close the door," she instructed. "Lock it." She tugged the ties out of her other bun as well, letting her long blonde hair hang loose down her body.

Jadeite did as he was told, turning around and shutting the door. He slid the locking bolt into place as well. "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but how long is this going to take, you think?"

"Oh, not long at all," Serenity replied, reaching to her shoulders to undo the straps on her gown.

"Sorry, it's just I had some plans, and—"

Jadeite turned around just in time to watch as Serenity unclasped her dress, letting it fall to the floor at her feet, pooling into a pile on the carpet. The maneuver left her half-naked, and Jadeite standing there, gaping in surprise.

"...Princess?"

"

Endymion pressed the door open with his back, pulling a hovering tray into his bedroom, a silver lid covering the contents for the moment. "Alright, honey, I brought dinner."

Serenity, who had been sitting on the bed reading, impassively turned to watch her husband easily slide the tray over towards the middle of the room, shutting the door behind him. He glanced over to see Chibiusa playing around in her pen, a mechanized ball automatically rolling around and giving her something to chase.

"It's pork. Breaded, I know you like that," Endymion continued. "We'll eat it together, like a couple. Because that's what we are."

Serenity got to her feet, silently watching as Endymion went over and pulled the large lid off the dishes of food. A large pile of breaded strips of pork were accompanied by various steamed vegetables and potatoes.

"If you're not ready to start mending things, then I understand. No hurry. I'll just continue to be the good, honest person that you fell in love with, and eventually, you'll see." He gave her a confident smile, setting the lid down on the floor. "This'll all just seem like a bad dream."

She moved right past the food trolley, still giving him an emotionless, flat stare that he couldn't quite read into. She went around the bed, hugging near it, going up to the right bedside table.

"Well, if you're not hungry, that's fine too," Endymion said, picking up an empty silver plate from the tray. "If you don't mind, I'll start without you. But really. I, for one, am feeling very good about where things are going."

Serenity still said nothing, instead reaching over towards the cone-shaped device, now sitting upright on the bedside table. After a couple of button presses, it began projecting a crystal-clear hologram right above the bed sheets. Endymion watched as an image of her and Jadeite came into focus, eyes knitting together in confusion on seeing Serenity's hair being down, out of her trademark buns.

"Sorry, it's just I had some plans, and—"

"Uh…" Endymion muttered, watching Serenity back away from the projector, then turning his focus back to the hologram. Just in time to see her remove her dress and let it fall to the floor, Jadeite shocked into silence at the sight. Endymion's reaction mirrored that of his general.

"...Princess?" Jadeite's voice was clear and unmistakable, the Earth general taking a half-step back from the now scantily-clad young woman. "W-what are you doing?"

"Don't worry, it's okay," Serenity responded. "Come here."

Endymion slowly twisted his head around, watching Serenity retreat over towards the baby pen. She cast him a flat look over her shoulder, still not indicating any sort of emotion that he could read, and then she stepped into the pen to pick Chibiusa up. "Alright, sweetie, time for your bath," she said quietly, turning her focus away from her husband completely.

"Um, Princess Serenity, I...what…" Jadeite babbled.

Endymion returned to watching the recording.

"It's fine." Serenity aggressively approached Jadeite, Jadeite backing into the closed door. "Come on, let's go."

"Um...what?!" he gasped. "Let's go what?!"

She placed her hand on Jadeite's shoulder, trying to comfort him. "He suggested it, this was his idea."

"What?! You've got to be kidding me," Jadeite whispered hoarsely. "He...he actually…"

"It's some kind of tradition. Earth royalty shares their wife with their generals every now and then," Serenity assured him.

"I've...I've never heard of anything like that," Jadeite said slowly.

"Neither had I, until a few days ago," Serenity pointed out. "Now come on, let's go." She jerked her head over towards the bed."

Endymion jaw may as well have been resting on the floor for how wide open it was. The plate in his hand slipped from his fingers, falling to the floor. He twisted around just in time to see his wife disappear into the bathroom, Chibiusa in tow.

"Serenity, are you _sure_ you didn't just misinterpret what he meant?!" Jadeite asked, looking a little panicked as Serenity began to run her slender hands along his uniformed chest.

"Yes, I'm sure," Serenity insisted, leaning up and pressing her lips into Jadeite's cheek. He visibly tensed up at this. "Now, are we going to do this, or am I going to have to call Nephrite up instead?" she asked after pulling away.

"U-uh...w-well...if it was his idea, then…" he exhaled out. "Alright." Quickly, he became the aggressor, roughly slamming his body into her and guiding them over towards the bed. Serenity's hands were quickly working on undoing his uniform, ripping his collar down. He was undoing her bra as he violently pushed her into the bed, all the while pressing his lips into hers.

Endymion's expression was one of abject terror, mouth still hanging open, eyes as wide as saucers. His arms hung slack at his sides, beyond shocked and completely appalled. As he watched Serenity's hands reach down towards Jadeite's waste and begin to unbuckle his pants, finally, an emotion besides distress.

Anger.


	28. Enraged Wolf

Chapter 28: Enraged Wolf

"Well, you were definitely right about the wife thing," Ptilol said, walking alongside Cronus down the right-hand side of the large open hangar, hands down at her sides. "We've heard way too many whispers out of the palace for it to be false. She moved out."

"I suppose that implies that Endymion was somehow doing all of this without her knowledge until recently," Cronus mused, putting his hands into the pockets of his coat, voice not carrying more than a few paces thanks to the large symphony of buzzing and whirring coming from the various workstations inside the hangar. Various modest-sized ships were being modified, examined, and pieced together by a couple dozen engineers. Orange sparks scattered up into the air consistently from various welders, giving the room a sense of danger even as it was all quite safe and controlled. "He's quite brilliant to pull that off as long as he did."

"Just putting it out there, sir, it occurs to me that if his wife is the thing keeping him from re-entering the business, then maybe our aim should be to get the wife out of the way," Ptilol said over a noisy drill.

"Are you under the impression that having a Princess killed would be any easier than having a Prince killed?" Cronus asked.

"It'd probably be a _little_ easier," Ptilol mused. "Look, I'm just spitballing. I'm not saying it's a good idea. But, it has to be said, we're running out of time. We're not too far away from needing to consider some desperate, less-than-optimal solutions."

"I'm aware," Cronus stated. "I'm considering methods by which we could expedite things. But violence and threats are not options we should be considering right now."

"Have you heard any buzz from the agency about the raw product?" Ptilol asked. "If they suddenly came into possession of a large quantity of raw imperium of that purity level, we'd hear about it, right?"

"As near as I can tell, the agency is halfway to considering the 'Tuxedo Mask' situation a cold case," Cronus replied. "From their perspective, he's disappeared, along with his product."

"I just think we should find a way to be proactive," Ptilol said. "Sitting around, hoping that His Royalness gets his head on straight in time, leaving things completely to fate, I don't like it. You've spent the last decade amassing money and power specifically so you would be able to dictate the actions of other people when you needed to."

"This is a special circumstance," Cronus said dismissively. "Over ninety-nine percent of the galaxy, they'd already be working in my laboratory, one way or another. A Prince requires a more delicate approach."

"We're less than a cycle away from having a galaxy-wide, massive network of sellers and nothing for them to sell," Ptilol said. "Delicate is about to get very, very expensive."

The two of them moved towards the back corner of the large warehouse, towards an area cordoned off by a massive blue tarp that cascaded down from the ceiling to the floor. "Believe me, I'm feeling the urgency of the situation too. But there's no magic pill solution. Now, let me focus on this for a moment."

Ptilol reached forward and pulled a separation in the tarp to the side, allowing her boss to enter a closed-off area. In the corner of the warehouse, an orb-shaped silver spaceship was mounted up on a docking port, the top hatch wide open. An abrasive whirring sound was coming from inside the ship.

Cronus walked up to the ship and knocked his knuckles on it a few time. "Viluy! How are things?!"

The whirring continued and there was no indication that she had heard Cronus. After a moment, Ptilol went over to a long steel table right next to the ship, grabbing a metal wrench from it and tossing it up into the air towards the open hatch door. It arced through the air, flying into the ship.

"Ow!"

The whirring stopped, and an irritated Viluy poked her head out of the ship's interior a moment later.

"I'm working with delicate things in here!" she snapped, glaring over at Ptilol. "You could have broken something!"

"Well, I'm sure you could have fixed it," Ptilol said dismissively.

" _Did_ she break anything?" Cronus asked. "And is there anything in there that would have been a big loss had she broken it?"

Viluy rubbed the top of her head. "It's close. The precision on the autopilot still isn't good enough, but it's very close."

"Well, it's more important to be precise than to be quick on this one," Cronus said. "As much time as you need, you have it. If this ship ends up just jumping right into the surface of Pandora or pulling out of the jump before getting past the shield, we'll have effectively set two billion creds on fire."

"Two billion creds that we can't spare," Ptilol added.

"Everything'll be perfect, I think I could have it ready in ten days," Ptilol said, ducking her head back down into the ship. "As long as no more wrenches get thrown in here by rubes with no regard or respect for the artistry of what I'm doing in here!"

Cronus glanced over at Ptilol out of the corner of his eyes. "And the payload?"

"More than enough to accomplish our goals," Viluy yelled. "Check the rockets over on the floor behind the ship if you want to see for yourself, they're safe to handle."

"I was hoping to do just that, actually," Cronus said, shoes clicking on the concrete floor as he maneuvered around the ship, Ptilol hot on his heels.

"

"Okay, here it is," Jadeite began, leaning back on the plush couch and resting his right ankle on his left knee, looking over to his left at Nephrite. "A farmer is standing on the edge of a river that he has to cross to get home. The farmer has three things with him, a fox, a rabbit, and a head of cabbage, and he has to get all three of these things home. He has a boat that he can use to cross the river, but the boat can only carry the farmer and one thing at a time. If he leaves the fox and the rabbit alone on one of the sides of the river, the fox will eat the rabbit. If he leaves the rabbit and cabbage alone on one of the sides of the river, the rabbit will eat the cabbage. What can he do to get home with all three?"

Nephrite thought briefly, putting his right fist into his left hand. "He gets a boat that isn't really shitty."

The massive holographic projector on the table right in front of the couch was depicting a pair of handball teams beginning to take the pitch to start a match.

"No, he can't get a better boat, that's the only boat he can use," Jadeite said.

Nephrite took a drag from a glass bottle after picking it up off the table to the left of the couch. "Well, that's a really shitty boat. I think getting a better boat is a higher priority than getting some cabbage home."

"Okay, he has to use this boat," Jadeite insisted. "Come on, how does he get across?"

"That doesn't even make any sense," Nephrite continued. "A fox weighs more than a rabbit and head of cabbage combined."

"It's not about the weight!" Jadeite said. "It's a magic boat, it can only cross the river if it's carrying the farmer and one thing."

"Is the farmer wearing a hat?" Nephrite asked.

"...what?" Jadeite asked. "Why does that matter?"

"A hat is a thing," Nephrite said. "You said the boat could only carry the farmer and one thing."

"Okay, the farmer isn't wearing a hat," Jadeite said, starting to sound a little exasperated.

"Is he wearing a shirt?" Nephrite asked. "Or any clothes?"

Jadeite sighed, tilting his head back on the top of the couch's backrest. "Are you trying to be a pain in the ass?"

"I just want to understand the riddle," Nephrite said flatly.

The door to the lounge room suddenly flew open, Prince Endymion marching in, a look of determination on his face as he moved over towards the coach that currently played host to half of his generals.

"Oh, Endymion, what's up?" Jadeite asked cheerfully, waving over towards his charge. "Hey, you wanna watch? Big match tonight!" He gestured over towards the projector.

Endymion marched right up to the table and propped his foot up against the side of the projector base, emphatically pushing it off the table with a grunt, sending it crashing to the floor. Jadeite jumped to his feet, his eased smile quickly disappearing.

"Hey, what the—" Jadeite began, watching the projector's shell casing crack on contact with the floor and the holographic projection flicker off. Endymion turned back towards him, and this time, Jadeite spotted the glint of a silver knife in his right hand. Suddenly, as the Prince advanced on him, a vicious look on his face, the projector seemed far less important.

Nephrite stood to his feet as well, so shocked by Endymion's actions that even he wasn't reacting as quickly as he was capable of. Jadeite quickly spun around and hurdled the couch just as Endymion brought the sharp-looking blade down in a slashing motion towards the blonde Earth general, driving the weapon deep into the couch cushion where he had just been sitting.

"Gods!" Jadeite yelped, quickly booking it over towards the door that Endymion had just entered through, sprinting as fast as he could. Endymion swung around to cut him off, but Jadeite managed to widen his path out to keep away from the Prince and then quickly burst out into the outer hallway. Endymion, with a feral growl, exploded out through the doors after him.

Right about this time, Nephrite stopped staring at the bizarre scene with his mouth agape and realized he should probably participate. He took off after his charge.

"YOU GET BACK HERE AND YOU DIE LIKE A MAN!" Endymion shouted, sprinting at top speed down a long hallway after Jadeite, knife still in his hand. The blonde general, a deeply concerned look on his face and eyes wide, pumped his arms at his sides, just a few steps ahead of the murderous Prince.

Jadeite tossed his right hand up high into the air as he passed a small table with a marble bust of King Epeius. The table slid out into the middle of the hall, right in front of Endymion's charging path, and it was all he could do to skid to a halt in time to not violently crash into it.

"Your Highness, please!" Jadeite shouted over his shoulder, chancing a quick look back at his pursuer.

"Get. BACK HERE!" he demanded, spinning around the bust. He was about to take off after Jadeite again, when suddenly, Nephrite came up behind him and wrapped both of his strong, muscular arms around him as tightly as he could. The burly general was able to spin his charge over towards the wall on the left side of the hallway, focusing on keeping his arms pinned at his sides so that the blade couldn't accidentally hurt him or Endymion.

"Your Highness, calm yourself!" Nephrite hissed into his ear. "Stop this, now!" Endymion continued to struggle to try to break Nephrite's grip.

"Let me go, right now, that's an order!" Endymion shouted, jerking his body around as powerfully as he could. A clattering sound echoed through the hallway as, in his struggles, he released his grip on the knife.

"Your Highness, I can't allow this to happen," Nephrite said. Endymion was trying to kick his legs back into Nephrite's knees, so Nephrite pinned him against the wall. "Now, take a breath, and we'll get you to the infirmary. You need to calm down. Whatever this is about, we'll take care of it."

"You don't know what's going on here, stay out of this," Endymion growled in a dark, dangerous tone. "Just let me go and walk away!"

"Endymion, I can't do that!" Nephrite said. "Okay, okay, Your Majesty, you need to trust me, you're having some sort of a hallucination, I think. Whatever you're perceiving is not real." Bedside manner was not one of Nephrite's strong suits, but he was doing the best he could.

Meanwhile, at the end of the hallway, Jadeite stuck his head out from behind the wall, still looking quite concerned and afraid. "You got him?" he called out loudly.

"Yes, I have him!" Nephrite grunted, Endymion still struggling to be released. "Your Highness, I need you to believe what I'm saying, this isn't real! Calm down!"

"It's real! I saw it!" Endymion protested. "Nephrite, I'm giving you an order, let me go!"

Slowly, Jadeite crept down the hallway, tentatively feeling a little safer with the large, muscular Earth general helping protect him.

"Okay, Your Majesty, let's talk this through," Nephrite said, trying to force some degree of calmness into his voice. "Let's use logic here, just stop struggling and listen! You are currently chasing your loyal general and guardian around the palace, with a knife, threatening to kill him. Why are you doing this? What makes you think this is a good idea?"

Endymion finally stopped fighting to try to break Nephrite's grip, slumping over slightly and exhaling powerfully. "Because, HE—" he jerked his head violently over towards Jadeite, "—had sex with my wife!"

Nephrite, whatever he was expecting Endymion to say, was clearly not expecting that. He swallowed down hard, trying to think of what to say. "Your Highness. I'm sure it feels very real right now. But, I assure you, you're hallucinating, please, let's just go see Dennis."

"I'm not hallucinating!" Endymion shouted.

"Hey, buddy, she said it was your idea!" Jadeite protested, putting his hands up defensively.

Nephrite began trying to shuffle the Prince down the hallway, dragging him away from Jadeite. "Yes, that too, she said it was—" Nephrite suddenly stopped, eyes going wide, then twisted his head around over his shoulder to look at Jadeite. "What?"

"She did!" Jadeite persisted. "How was I supposed to know she was lying?!"

Nephrite released his grip on the Prince, turning around, staring at Jadeite. "You...did you...Jadeite. You had sex with Princess Serenity?"

Endymion roughly tugged his tunic around, trying to straighten his clothes out, scowling deeply.

"Yeah, what...she...she invited me up into her room! What was I supposed to do?!" Jadeite argued. "She said there was some sort of tradition where Earth royals share their wives with their generals!"

Nephrite's shoulders drooped fractionally. "Jadeite."

"I had no reason to believe she was lying! Why would she say something like that as a lie?!" Jadeite continued to try defending himself.

"Nephrite. Get out of my way and let me kill him," Endymion demanded, looking over Nephrite's shoulder, gritting his teeth and glaring daggers over at Jadeite.

Nephrite just stood there, arms slack at his sides, and then moved to the side of the hallway. "You know what? Go ahead," he said, resignation in his voice.

"HEY!" Jadeite shouted, jumping back a half-step. Endymion lunged forward, right hand going towards Nephrite's belt and yanking the small plasma pistol off of his hip.

With only a beat or two to react, Jadeite instinctively ripped a chunk of marble out of the wall to his left, getting it to float up in the air between him and Endymion. The white-hot discharge from the weapon splashed over the slab of marble, and Jadeite quickly dove head-first into the hole he had put in the wall. The charred slab quickly slammed back into the hole from where it had come, slotting in perfectly, preventing the Prince from giving pursuit. Endymion ran up to the sealed hole and threw his shoulder into it as hard as he could, then tried to push on it with all his might when it didn't give.

"Jadeite, get out here!" Endymion demanded, beating his fists on the wall. "Jadeite, I mean it!"

Endymion backed up a couple steps, pointing the plasma launcher at the place on the wall where the hole had been. Just before he tried to burn his way through, his wrist was grabbed by a firm grip and he was roughly pushed over towards the wall.

"Your Highness, enough!" Kunzite growled, giving the Prince's wrist a couple of shakes and forcing him to drop the weapon. Endymion glanced up, finding Kunzite's stern face, before he felt his back get pressed up into the marble behind him.

"Kunzite, I mean it, stay out of this," Endymion said, eyes searching the floor for the discarded firearm. "Let me go."

"Endymion! Clear your head!" Kunzite quickly glanced down both sides of the hall, grateful to find that they had not yet attracted attention from the palace guard.

"Kunzite, you don't know what's going on here," Endymion hissed.

"Yes, I do!" Kunzite insisted. "I heard everything, it doesn't matter, you have to control yourself! Chasing your general around with a knife, firing a plasma bolt in the palace, you're going to attract attention! And when you attract attention, your father is going to hear about this, and then he's going to have questions! How are you going to answer his questions?! Do you want him to find out about everything?!"

Endymion slowly stopped struggling, gradually and begrudgingly realizing that Kunzite was correct. His scowl remained as severe and pronounced as ever, nostrils flaring in anger.

"Kunzite, he...my wife. He. Had sex. With my wife. Do you understand that?" he seethed. "Am I supposed to...just stand for that?!"

"Your Highness, Jadeite did a very stupid and foolish thing. And he should be disciplined and held accountable. But not like this." He began to slowly relinquish his grip on Endymion's arms, trusting that the worst of his rage had passed. "Let me handle that part of it. You go back to your room, cool off, come back tomorrow morning, and we'll deal with this like civilized people."

"Civilized people," Endymion repeated. "Kunzite, I...look." He managed to wrench himself free of Kunzite's relinquishing grip, spinning around to hold his right hand out towards his guardian. "You're not married, you couldn't possibly understand what's going on here." He pointed at the ripped-out segment of the wall. "That...I can't just…"

"Your Highness. Think. Do you really want to cause a ruckus, and then have to explain it to your father? There are bigger things happening here." Kunzite raised his eyebrows. "Think it through. Please. Jadeite did something very stupid, but he is not the core of your problems right now. And you know that. He didn't do this just to hurt you. The person who did, she's the core of your problems."

Endymion glared over at the wall section that had been ripped out and roughly shoved back in, and then with an angry growl, began marching down the hallway in the direction that he had come from.

Kunzite and Nephrite slowly tracked him with their eyes as he bent down to retrieve his knife from the floor, then continued to stomp right past Nephrite. The burly, brown-haired guardian, typically not intimidated by anything, was quick to shuffle to the side to allow the Prince to pass, clearly a little cowed by his rage.

After a couple secundas, the sharp tap of Endymion's shoes on the floor stopped echoing down the hall as he disappeared around the corner, reluctantly accepting the situation. Kunzite glanced over at Nephrite.

"And _you_ shouldn't be encouraging him," Kunzite scolded. "Our job is to protect him, and sometimes that includes from himself."

"The man slept with his wife, Kunzite," Nephrite said under his breath.

"Right," Kunzite muttered. "Speaking of which." He went over to the roughly-placed slab of marble and knocked on it a couple times. "Jadeite, come out! He's gone!"

No response. Kunzite rammed the butt end of his fist into the wall a few more times.

"Jadeite, I mean it! You have to face up to what you did, get out here! Endymion left, that's the best you're getting!"

Still nothing.

"Jadeite! Come on, I know you're still in there! I promise Endymion left!"

"Prove it," Jadeite's muffled voice finally requested.

Kunzite sighed, rolling his eyes.

"

Serenity, laying back on the bed and holding a book up in front of her face, barely glanced over when Endymion practically slammed his way through the bedroom door. No sooner had he slammed the door shut behind him then he rounded on an unaffected Serenity.

"By the Gods, Serenity! I understand you're frustrated and angry, but there's a _line_!" he snapped, putting his arms out wide to his sides. "Jadeite?! Really?!"

Serenity glanced up from the book. "Endymion, I don't know where you think this line is, but I'm sure it's _well_ before creating a criminal alter ego in secret!"

Endymion grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Serenity, you are _still_ my wife, no matter how you feel about that right now! And, as my wife, you do need to hold yourself to _some_ level of minimal acceptable conduct!"

"I'm not your wife," she said bitterly. "I'm your hostage."

Endymion put his hands on his hips. "A hostage?! Oh, what an _awful_ prison I've put you in, Serenity!" He spun around the room, arms held out at his sides. "Just _look_ at this place!"

"You think I care about any of that?!" she countered harshly. "Endymion, I don't want to be here! I don't want to be around you! You have forced me to be here! You can delude yourself into believing something else if it makes you feel better, but I am your hostage!" She shrugged. "And you know what, you're right! I'm stuck! I can't turn you in, I can't keep you away from me, I can't separate from you, congratulations, you called my bluff! But we are not together anymore, and I'm not going to accommodate you deluding yourself into believing that we are!"

Endymion emphatically swung both of his arms over towards the door. "Serenity, would you like me to go fetch the...piles and piles of documentation that affirms that you're currently my wife?! Because I'm happy to, if it would help clear up this confusion you seem to have about the current status of our relationship!" He gave an aggravated swipe of his right hand across his forehead. "W-what is even the point of you doing this?! I told you I was done with imperium smuggling, and I am!"

"Well, you're going to have to drop something to clear the calendar for next cycle when you decide to try your hand at contract killing, or freighter piracy," she said, voice dripping with biting sarcasm. "Or whatever other illegal hobby strikes your fancy, who knows what it'll be."

He gave a rattled sigh, grimacing violently. "You know, Serenity, you _really_ could stand to just take a moment to consider the fact that, whatever wrong I did, I did it for you! If you could just open your mind up to that little piece of it, I'd really appreciate it!"

"Have you told yourself that so many times, you've actually convinced yourself that it's true?" she asked. "Like, do you actually believe that's the case at this point?"

Endymion put his hand up to his forehead. "Serenity, I don't know what that's supposed to mean."

"Endymion, if you don't like it, let me leave!" Serenity said simply. "Let me leave with Chibiusa and stay away from me!" She point over towards the balcony doors. "Do that, and you'll have nothing to worry about."

The Crown Prince gave a dangerous little smirk, giving her a wild-eyed look. "Oh, that's what you want, huh? You think this will get me to leave you alone? Well, you know what, Serenity? Please, by all means, I _dare_ you, don't stop now! Feel free to have sex with _all_ of my generals while you're at it! Have sex with the head chef, the captain of the palace guard, my tailor, hell, have sex with my _father_! Because I don't care, and I'm not going anywhere! You get that?!" With that, he spun off, marching over towards the bathroom door, tossing his hand up high over his shoulder in a gesture of farewell. "Just try me, and see what happens!"

"Suit yourself," Serenity said coldly.

"Oh, I will, I'll suit myself!" he growled, tossing the door open and then slamming it shut behind him.

"

"Alright." Zoisite held his palms out to either side of himself, looking over at Jadeite, then to Endymion. "Your Highness. Jadeite has something he'd like to say to you."

The Prince and his guardian were sitting in chairs on opposite sides of a small circular table inside Jadeite's private quarters. The room, heavily stylized with dark, strong tones and with several posters of well-known supermodels pasted to the walls, was normally charming to Endymion, but right now he found it obnoxious. Truth be told, he found _everything_ about Jadeite obnoxious right now, including the fact that he was still alive. He was sitting back in the chair, arms on the armrests, scowling over at his general. Kunzite and Nephrite were both sitting right behind him, ready to spring up and grab him at a moment's notice.

Jadeite cleared his throat. "W-why is he holding a knife?" he asked. Endymion was indeed armed with a bladed weapon, holding it in his right hand.

"Y-yes, um, I was going to ask something similar," Zoisite said uneasily, looking at the shiny knife, Endymion starting to slowly twirl it around between his fingers.

Endymion didn't answer, simply staring Jadeite down with unblinking eyes.

"I would...I would feel much safer and more comfortable if you put down the knife, Your Majesty," Jadeite said meekly. "Please, put the knife down." He tried to make a calming gesture over towards the Prince. "Put the knife down, and then I'll say what I want to say."

"Sir, I think that's a reasonable request," Zoisite said, looking over at Endymion. "Please, put the knife down."

With a slow shrug, Endymion leaned forward a bit, then wound his knife-wielding hand up above his head, and slammed it down into the table blade-first. All four generals jumped a bit as he stabbed the blade deep into the wooden surface, sticking it down to the hilt. Jadeite stared with wide-eyes at the knife handle, then looked up at Endymion's seemingly-emotionless face.

"Um, J-Jadeite?" Zoisite prompted.

Jadeite gave his head a quickly shake. "U-uh, Your Majesty. I'm so incredibly sorry for what happened yesterday. I take full responsibility for not verifying what Princess Serenity told me, and I can't make any excuse for my actions. I know I can't take back what I did, I know that. All I can say is that I am deeply apologetic about it, and I give you my word that nothing like this will ever happen again."

Endymion presented no reaction to Jadeite's apology, just sitting back in the chair and staring at him.

"I had no idea that you and Serenity were having difficulties, if I had any idea I would have realized what was going on and left immediately. Again, this doesn't excuse my actions. I didn't apply nearly enough critical thinking to the situation when it was presented to me, and was very careless. I should have checked with you to verify her story. Once again, I'm very sorry."

Zoisite nodded, then looked over at the Prince. "Well, Your Highness, do you have anything you'd like to say in reply to all that?"

He didn't, continuing to do nothing but blankly stare, his fingertips digging into the chair armrest ever-so-slightly.

"C-can you please just blink?" Jadeite asked, averting his gaze away from him. "It's starting to freak me out!"

"Alright, I think we're done here!" Zoisite popped to his feet. "I think we've taken an important first step in addressing this, and that's more than enough for today! Let's, uh, let's go!" He quickly gestured both of his arms toward the door, and both Kunzite and Nephrite got to their feet as well.

"I can't undo what I did," Jadeite said quickly. "But I will do all I can to make it up to you."

"How?" Endymion asked, finally giving some indication that he hadn't suddenly gone mute. "I'm genuinely curious to know, _how_ are you going to make this up to me? Do you have any understanding of the magnitude of what you've done?!"

"Look, Your Highness, just say the word, and I'll set it up for you, it'll take me less than a cycle!" Jadeite offered.

"Okay, okay, seriously, we're done here!" Zoisite said, rather loudly, trying to usher the Prince over towards the door.

"No, no!" Endymion put his arm out towards Zoisite. "I want to hear what he's going to say. I really want to know what the hell he thinks will make up for this."

"Well, obviously, things really aren't going well with you and the Princess, if she's actually doing something like this, so that's a tragedy, but, hey, silver lining! I'm all about silver linings, one word, harem!" Jadeite pointed at Endymion. "This is a prime opportunity for you to live the dream! You give me a cycle on Venus, I'll round up a dozen girls who are open to that kind of shit, bring them here, and boom! You'll be swimming in it!"

Endymion began to resume his dead-eyed stare over at Jadeite, eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Okay, we're done here!" Zoisite said, quickly gesturing his head over at Kunzite and Nephrite, who stepped forward and placed their hands on Endymion's shoulders. "Let's go!"

"What?!" Jadeite asked. "It's an honest offer, he'd love it! He got married too young, it's clearly not working out, let's mix the formula up a bit!"

"Jadeite, just stop talking!" Kunzite snapped, pulling Endymion to his feet, wanting to get him out of the room while he was still at least allowing himself to be pulled toward the exit without protesting. "Gods!"

"Uh, just, keep it in mind, then?" Jadeite asked. "Something to consider if things don't improve?"

Quickly, the two larger members of Endymion's generals pulled him from the room, out into the grey hallway, Zoisite quickly shutting the door behind him before Jadeite could say something else that would trigger a violent reaction from the Prince.

Kunzite huffed out a large sigh. "Alright. Your Highness. I need your word that you're going to let this go. No more shooting at him or chasing him around with a knife. I know he's not perfect, but tell me that you're going to curb the worst of your vengeful desires, at the very least."

Endymion grumbled under his breath.

"I'll...talk to him about the harem nonsense," Kunzite added. "He won't bring that up again, I promise."

"Fine," he finally said curtly.

"Thank you," Kunzite said, clapping his large hands on Endymion's shoulders. "So, um...you and Serenity, anything?"

"Not particularly," Endymion admitted, shoulders hitched up tensely. "Just, what do I have to do?!" He quickly glanced down either side of the hallway.

"Just...wait her out," Kunzite whispered. "She can't stay mad forever. It's all you can do."

He gave a tired nod, and then slowly walked off down the grey hall, his terse anger seemingly having been partially replaced with a dejected sadness, shoulders hanging a bit.

"And try not to say anything rash to her right now when emotions are running high!" Kunzite added.

"Too late," he mumbled.

"

Pandora was one of the lesser moons of Saturn in terms of size and utility, and in a time of peace would have been fairly insignificant in comparison to other orbital bodies. However, it currently served as one of the more important areas under the control of The Rings, as its position as an inner satellite of Saturn, as well as it's chaotic, erratic orbit, made it a hugely important piece of territory in the ongoing civil war. The Rings had one of their larger weapons platforms and a significant portion of their foot soldiers stationed on the moon, and had invested heavily into protecting it with a state-of-the-art shielding system.

So, of course, the generator for this shield, a small little base on the eastern hemisphere of the body, was heavily protected, not just by the shield itself, but by a solid three dozen armed sentries, keeping an eye on every inch of space around the generator. If the shield were to fail, the energy drop would be immediately detected by Saturn, and within a minuta, they would be throwing everything they had into an all-out assault to try to take the key territory away from The Rings.

"Lousy bitch," Gregory grumbled through the cigarette between his lips, eyes constantly scanning the horizon. "Does she just have no understanding of what her father did during his time as King? She doesn't deserve that throne, she should know that and accept her fate."

"Oh, you know how these things are," Stephen said out of the corner of his mouth, leaning over a bit towards his colleague. "Not her fault, blah blah blah, she wasn't even born when he was doing most of his human experimentation."

"Hey, I don't wanna hear that," Gregory said. "Half of her came from him, didn't it? So half of her is no better than that crazy son-of-a-bitch who nearly ran this planet into the ground less than two decades ago. A clam has more of a right to sit on the throne than she does."

"I agree, of course," Stephen said quickly.

"How many more people need to die?" Gregory asked rhetorically. "Doesn't she get it by now? Doesn't she understand how this is going to go?"

"Nothing to worry about, buddy," Stephen said, rubbing his right hand over the barrel of his plasma rifle. "People are starting to hear about how weak she is. Rumor is you can smack her with a piece of paper and she'll fly across the room. Ain't nobody wants to stand up and fight for someone who can barely stand up for themselves. I think we're turning this war in our favor. Give it another year, and it'll be obvious."

"I hope you're right," Gregory replied. "It's been too long since Saturn had leadership worth a damn, I can't believe there's a single person on the entire planet actually willing to fight for someone like—"

Both men winced down hard at a bright, violent flash of white light filled the air around them, opening their eyes to find an orb-shaped, silver spaceship hovering a couple dozen haplouns above the ground, not that far in front of the two, having seemingly appeared out of thin air. Reflexively, both men brought their plasma rifles up and pointed them at the intruding ship, putting questions of how it had managed to get through their shield on the backburner for the time being.

Before they could get a shot off, the silver ship fired a volley of smoke-emitting projectiles towards the shield generator, each one releasing a little _phoofm_ of sound as they flew from the frontal tubes. Gregory and Stephen turned around just in time to watch them impact the dome, erupting in massive explosions. The plume of destruction spread out in all directions as the dome was peppered with rockets, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and sending up waves of debris. The two armed guards quickly became more concerned with their own self-preservation and tried to run away from the generator, but after only a few steps the debris cloud crashed into them hard. Their fate was the same as the other thirty-four armed sentries, quickly killed as collateral.

The shield encircling the entire moon flickering off, the odd ship quickly spun around so it was pointing up towards the skies, and just as soon as it had appeared, it zipped away, jumping across the galaxy. The alarm would soon be sounded over the destruction of the generator, but given the massive damage done to the entire dome, there would be no fixing it anytime soon. And, down on the planet surface, news of the shield's failure would soon be spreading among Saturn's military, and a quick, but powerful, offensive would be carried out while the opportunity presented itself.


	29. Call to Ancestors

Chapter 29: Call to Ancestors

A/N: Sorry for the slight delay in this chapter, I had a mildly traumatic experience last week (my tooth cracked out of nowhere) and dealing with that took some time out of my schedule.

"

Cassini delicately tipped the tabled over, Princess Saturn's body stiffening as she was tilted upside down, head dropping down towards the carpeted floor and her feet rising up towards the ceiling.

"You alright, Your Highness?" he asked. Slowly, she relaxed her muscles, exhaling. The thick cuffs around her ankles kept her from sliding off, and her body gradually stretched out.

"I'm fine," she replied quietly, flexing her stomach muscles as her spine was stretched out slightly. She gave a little groan as she allowed the forces of gravity to extend her torso out.

"If it starts to hurt, make sure you tell me, it's not supposed to," he said sternly. She began to slowly rotate her torso around.

"It doesn't hurt," she assured him, craning her body over to the right, twisting as much as she could.

"Alright. Now, Your Highness, I have some news," Cassini began.

"I assume there's a reason why you made sure I was tied to a table before telling me?" she said dryly, her black hair comically drooping down towards the ground, away from her head.

He gave a wry smile. "Actually, not the case. The news is good, if a bit curious."

"I'm listening," she said, blinking rapidly as the blood started to rush to her head.

"There's been a significant breakthrough on Pandora. In fact, we're currently in the process of securing the moon. We're waiting for official word, but it seems reasonable to say that we've taken it."

"Overnight?" Saturn questioned, looking up at her advisor. "How is that even possible?"

"We detected that their atmospheric shielding went down last night, and the generals immediately put together an offensive to take advantage. It seems as if The Rings were completely unprepared and unable to put together an effective defense in time, since the actual battle is already over. All that's left is for us to put up our own shielding and establish some forces to defend it." Cassini pulled his thin clear tablet out of his pocket and tapped his fingers on the front of it a few times. "It's an important piece of territory, as soon as we've locked it up we'll start trying to salvage the weapon platforms and start to outfit it for our use."

Saturn began flexing her back. "All this happened while I was asleep?"

"I know, it's quite something," Cassini admitted. "Losses were minimal, the moon is small enough for us to quickly cover and make sure we've secured it. Really, the news is all good."

"Why did the shield go down?" Saturn asked, running her fingers through her thick mane of black hair.

"That's the curious part," Cassini said. "We had no active operations on Pandora, it wasn't anything we did. The shield just went down."

"Some sort of accident?" she wondered aloud, twisting her torso to the left. "Power outage?"

"That was the initial assumption," he said. "Until our forces found the shield generator completely destroyed."

"Still could be an accident," Saturn pointed out.

"According to the initial reports, it looked as if the dome that was protecting the generator was destroyed by explosive ballistics, from the outside," Cassini explained.

Saturn exhaled out a large breath, eyes wide and alert as she considered this new information. "We didn't have any sleeper agents posted on Pandora? We're sure?" she inquired.

"Yes," he affirmed, nodding. "I feel very confident in saying that the shield sabotage wasn't us. Perhaps someone posted there decided to turn of their own volition. Or maybe someone out there really likes us."

Hotaru gave a tiny, sour little frown. "If that was the case, this war would have been over years ago." She sighed.

"Well, let's appreciate the breaks we get. This was definitely a break. A big one. Pandora is significant enough territory to potentially start to turn momentum in this war."

Saturn continued to stretch her back out, extending her spine as far as she could. "If there's someone out there in the galaxy who wants to help us win this war, I sure wish they'd come forward. Because we could really use their help on a more consistent basis."

"

Endymion had his elbow propped up on the right armrest of the large couch, resting his chin in his hand, a tired, frustrated scowl clouding his features as he stared across the room. Kunzite pensively glanced over at his charge from his seat in the middle of the couch, arms crossed over his chest.

"If she had had sex with _you_ , I wouldn't have cared," Endymion grumbled.

"...I'm sorry, what was that?" Kunzite asked, blinking rapidly in response to Endymion's rather bizarre statement.

"No, really, if it was...if it had been you, I wouldn't have gotten upset," he continued, the bitterness soaking every syllable that came out of his mouth. "Zoisite, Nephrite, I could have gotten over it. But...Jadeite?! Really? It just had to be Jadeite?!"

Kunzite pursed his lips, looking down at the tiled floor. "...thank you, I suppose."

Endymion rolled his eyes.

"But, um, really, how are you doing? That's why we're having these meetings, I...you've been keeping everything under control? Anything you want to vent?" Kunzite asked, shifting around slightly on the couch cushion.

"Kunzite, you don't need to keep me on a leash!" Endymion growled. "I...I've said it several times already, I know I have to keep a lid on things. I'm not going to...to go over to Jadeite's room in the middle of the night with a katana. I'm past that. I know he wasn't the primary instigator."

Kunzite nodded. "A-alright, that's good." He sized the Prince up, eyes scanning his huddled-up form. "Anything else you'd like to say? Again, the things you can't vent to anyone else, you can vent to me."

The bridge of Endymion's nose wrinkled. "She can't stay mad forever, that's...that's what I keep telling myself. But every day that goes by, I wonder, more and more, what if she _does_? She moved back in ten days ago, and I can't get her to budge even a little bit!" He buried his head into his propped-up palm, grimacing. "Ten days, and nothing!" He chewed on his cheek. "Well, for whatever it's worth, she hasn't had sex with anyone. That I know of."

Kunzite held his tongue for a moment, silently waiting out the Prince, giving him free reign to blast off whatever was on his mind.

"Certainly not _me_ , of course," he murmured. "I, I really feel like there's _some_ way, something I can say or do, that would get her to understand, but I can't figure out what it is!" He shook his head. "She doesn't even like it when I'm near Chibiusa! You'd think my criminal activity somehow involved hurting children!"

"Alright," Kunzite said quietly. "Just stay patient, try to stay calm and even-keeled."

"Starting to wonder," he admitted. "Maybe it's not just that simple. Maybe it really is just damaged beyond repair. Maybe I am just...keeping her hostage at this point."

"Well, like you've already said, it's not as if there's anything else you two can do without destroying the merger agreement and plunging the Moon into ruin," Kunzite pointed out. "She has to realize that by now. There's literally no other option other than staying together and keeping quiet."

Endymion steepled his fingers in front of him. "Maybe." His face wrinkled as if he had just bitten something sour. "Maybe. I'm wondering about that. I don't...Kunzite, I don't want to make her miserable all the time. I don't want her to hate waking up every morning because she knows I'm going to be right there next to her."

"Well, in the grand scheme, everything happened rather recently," Kunzite pointed out. "Let's just keep waiting."

After a moment, the communicator on Endymion's belt began to buzz. Absentmindedly, the Prince reached down towards his hip and yanked it off, pulling it up towards his mouth. "Yes?"

"Your Highness, we just received a package marked for you. Specific instructions that the contents should be viewed only by you."

Endymion seemed to snap out of his melancholy just a little bit at this statement. "It's been scanned?"

"We've run every scan on it, nothing came up. Of course, you know how technology can be."

Kunzite leaned over towards the communicator in Endymion's hand. "Set up one of the sealed rooms for use and put the package inside. Me and the Prince will be down shortly."

"Yes, that," Endymion agreed.

"Will do."

Endymion tapped the center button on the device, standing to his feet. "Thanks, Kunzite. I don't know if it comes across, but it does help a lot to have someone I can discuss these things with."

The two young men went over to the sliding metal door to Kunzite's private chambers, Kunzite reaching over to tap the panel that prompted it to slide open. The two had taken maybe a couple steps out into the hallway when Kunzite glanced over to his left. Out of the corner of his vision, he just barely made out one of the other doors, identical-looking to his, sliding closed.

"Why don't you head on over to the control room?" Kunzite asked. "I just remembered, Jadeite wanted to show me something."

Endymion smacked Kunzite on the shoulder a couple times. "See you soon, buddy." He walked off in the opposite direction, Kunzite happy to see that he seemed to have no overtly negative reaction to Jadeite's name being mentioned.

"

The steel door to Jadeite's room slapped shut, prompting the thin blonde general to immediately begin aggressively questioning his elder colleague.

"So, how about now?!" he hissed, leaning forward over his desk chair, hands gripping tightly on the top of the backrest.

"I trust that you'll accept my decision, whatever it may be, and abide by my ruling," Kunzite said sternly.

Jadeite rolled his eyes. "So, no, then."

"Jadeite, put your personal biases away for a moment," Kunzite admonished.

"I could say the same thing to you!" Jadeite snapped. "What about _your_ personal biases?"

"I have put them away, whatever they might be," Kunzite said. "I know how to do that."

Jadeite sighed. "Kunzite, I'm not just joking around right now, believe it or not!" He pointed over at the white-haired general. "I care about the Prince, a lot! I know the consequences of enacting Order One, but it might be saving his life! That's more important than anything else!"

"I've been closely examining him for the last several days, Jadeite. I have no reason to believe, based off anything he's shown me, that we have any need to enact Order One," Kunzite said slowly. "Now, you need to tell me that you accept my decision."

Jadeite squeezed his eyes shut. "Kunzite. I know you remember what the High King told us, when we were first brought into the palace. He told it to all of us. And what he told us supersedes everything else, including the wills and wishes of the Prince himself. You can't think about what he would want us to do, not in this instance. This order comes first."

"Do _you_ remember what he told us?" Kunzite asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning up against the near wall. "Our instructions were clear. If, at any time, Prince Endymion gave us reason to believe that he had inherited his mother's dementia to a severity that would cripple his ability to rule one day, we would inform him so that he could be placed in cryogenic stasis until a cure could be developed, and so that High King Kasios could explore options on how to keep the Kingdom in the family in his absence."

Jadeite put his arms out to his sides. "Okay, what am I missing?"

"I spend more time with the Prince than anyone. Ever since I got here, Order One has been in the back of my head constantly. I've been monitoring his mental health, always. And I know what dementia is. He doesn't have it. That's my ruling, and I expect you to respect it."

"Kunzite, he...he chased me around the palace with a knife!" Jadeite protested. "He tried to shoot me! Actually, he _did_ shoot me, I just blocked it!"

"The wording of Order One, Jadeite. There's nothing in there that said we needed to report to the High King in the event that the Prince...occasionally showed substandard judgement, or acted irrationally, or got angry and acted out because of it. It was only in the specific event that he was showing signs of dementia, and it was significant enough to where he would not be able to effectively serve as King. That's it." Kunzite nodded with finality. "I have not seen any of that."

"What, exactly, do you need to see?!" Jadeite questioned. "Would it have been enough had he _actually_ killed me? Because, I assure you, he almost did! You didn't see it, you weren't there! Just trust me on that!"

"Well, Jadeite, you should consider the possibility that you may have...done some things that provoked him into doing that," Kunzite said dryly.

"Okay, sure, but...he fired a plasma pistol in the palace hallways!" Jadeite defended himself. "I get it, he had a right to be angry, I made a mistake, but...there was more there than just righteous anger, Kunzite! I need you to see that!"

"Jadeite, you had sex with his wife," Kunzite said, pushing up away from the wall a half-step. "Order One does not dictate that we have to report to his father in the event that he becomes irrationally angry for a couple minutas because his wife cheated on him with his general. Now, we are not reporting anything to his father, and you are going to drop this. My answer is final, and I expect you to accept that my answer is based on impartial observation of the Prince."

Jadeite scowled, glancing over towards his bed. He looked back over to Kunzite. "A year from now, when he's chasing _you_ around the palace with a knife because you...left a bootmark on his floor or ate his dessert, I'm going to remember we had this conversation."

"

Kunzite slowly manipulated a few joysticks on the console in front of him, both him and Endymion watching a small screen in front of them. The screen showed the inside of a small, cube-shaped room, all surfaces made out of solid steel, with a square wooden crate set on the floor right in the middle of it. With Kunzite's manipulations of the joysticks, metal arms were descending from the walls down towards the crate.

"It's not anywhere close to my birthday, obviously everyone should be aware of that," Endymion said quietly, nibbling on the tip of his left thumb. "I suppose you don't necessarily need a reason to send someone a gift."

"Gift is likely," Kunzite agreed, getting one of the arms to hold the crate down, while the second one pried into the wooden crease on the lid. With the press of a button, it jerked upward, opening the wooden container with a sharp crack and knocking the lid off onto the floor. Kunzite immediately turned his focus to a second screen, right next to the first one, this one displaying numbers and colored bars.

"All readings normals. No change in the makeup of the atmosphere inside the room. No dangerous substances detected," Kunzite said slowly. "Looks safe."

Endymion leaned in towards the main screen. "Looks like...bags?"

Kunzite began to move the metal arms around again, maneuvering them up so that the long, thin arms stuck into the mouth of one of the bags.

"You're good at that," Endymion mused. "You must be amazing at the arcades."

"I wouldn't know," Kunzite said, managing to force the mouth of one of the sacks open, then moving the camera in closer to get a look at the contents.

Endymion flinched back a bit as the screen was steered up close to the open mouth of the bag, the contents sparkling and twinkling up at him. The sizable sack was loaded with emeralds of assorted sizes, some pebble-sized crystals, others nearly the size of Endymion's thumb.

"What the…" Endymion muttered.

"Well. That is quite the gift," Kunzite said.

"

Endymion got down onto his knees right next to the wooden crate and stuck his hand into the filled sack that was laying open right in front of him, running his fingers through the green crystals, sifting through them, finding nothing but more expensive gems underneath.

"It's a little tacky as a present," Kunzite muttered, standing up next to the crate, hands on his hips as his charge went through the sack.

After a moment, the Prince lifted the bag out of the crate, then moved to a second identical one underneath it. He lifted the mouth of the back up and yanked it open, somehow not entirely surprised to find this one filled with bright red rubies.

"Who would give a gift like this?" Endymion gasped. "And...who, who would send something like this anonymously?"

In short order, Endymion moved on from the second sack, towing it out of the crate to find a third. He didn't even bother having a reaction when he opened this one and found it filled with sapphires, light blue little crystals twinkling up at him.

"To you, specifically," Kunzite recounted. "Not to the High King, not to the palace...you. For your eyes only."

Endymion pushed the third bag out of the way, finding that it was indeed the last one, but a small folded slip of paper sat at the very bottom of the container. He picked it up eagerly, hoping it would shed some light on this mystery. He straightened it out, finding a simple sentence written down in a bold, blocky text.

"To the first of many, I hope," Endymion read. His face wrinkled a bit, then he looked around him at the three sacks. "The first of many…"

"Does that help? Is that a clue?" Kunzite asked, looking over Endymion's shoulder at the note, then reaching down to pull it out of his fingers. He began to examine it.

"Kunzite, these...all these gemstones, what would you say the total value is? All three of the bags? Give me an estimate."

Kunzite quickly lifted the bag of rubies up, judging its weight, quickly jerking it up and down. "Well, going just off weight, and assuming a balance of quality in accordance with what I've seen so far..."

He needed only a secunda or two to estimate the weight of all three bags, lifting each one up in turn and feeling them out.

"Initial guess would be two and a half billion creds. Maybe slightly more," Kunzite reported.

"Two billion six hundred thousand," Endymion said under his breath, giving a little disbelieving grin.

"Something like that, yes," Kunzite agreed. "Does that mean something to you?"

"Oh, wow, I…" he slowly nodded. "Wow, he must not think much of me. I mean, Gods, that's kind of pathetic."

"Who?" Kunzite questioned.

With a crooked little grin, Endymion got to his feet. "It would seem that a certain pharmaceutical tycoon thinks that I'm an easily-manipulated fool."

Kunzite stared down at the bags, each loaded with sizable wealth. "Cronus sent this?"

Endymion bobbed his head up and down. "Talk about desperate," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Kunzite, could you have these bags loaded into my ship? I'm going to make some calls, try to figure out where Cronus is today." He turned around and went over towards the sealed door in the wall, grabbing the large wheel and spinning it to the left. "He'll be needing these back."

"

"Your Highness, you have my deepest apologies," Cronus said, spinning his chair around from the left corner of the room, momentarily taking his attention off the microscope at the table in front of him. Prince Endymion and Kunzite stood a few steps behind him, Endymion still having a bit of a caustic grin on his face.

The Deimos installation of Galen Laboratories was an impressive facility, a dome-shaped construction of massive amounts of concrete and steel. All in all, it wasn't nearly as big as the primary labs under Cronus's control, but made up for it due to the impeccable design. Copious amounts of glass, which could transform from transparent to opaque in an instant, made up a lot of the walls and surfaces inside, giving the entire building a customizable and cutting-edge feel. During the walk from the front lobby to Cronus's office, Endymion and Kunzite had taken the time to appreciate the building, both of them able to see the beauty of such things in light of their familiarity with high-end locations.

Cronus's office was rather simple, a desk in the middle of the room, and a small workstation in the left corner, which made sense given it was unlikely Cronus would spend much time here.

"What, exactly, are you apologizing for?" Endymion asked. "I'm just a little confused, w-what exactly happened here?"

"Well, you've had to take time out of your day to come here and sort out this mistake, and the mistake was entirely on me and my organization, so I apologize for that," Cronus stated, putting his hands on his knees, a friendly smile on his face.

"What was the mistake?" Endymion grilled, crossing his arms over his chest, looking almost bemused.

Cronus thought for a moment. "News of you declining my offer was not well-communicated by me, so it would seem. The people working for me who are in charge of making sure you receive your payment were under the impression that you had started working for me. They merely believed that you were being compensated for goods and services rendered. Again, I apologize."

"That's the story you're going with?" Endymion said. "Come on, Cronus, I can already tell you don't think too much of me, but now you're just being insulting! You think I'm supposed to believe that?"

Cronus's face flinched just a bit. "I do not think poorly of you at all, Your Highness. I actually have the utmost respect for you."

"Then stop expecting me to believe any of that," he admonished. "Let's just be honest with each other. I'll make it easy for you. You knew exactly what you were doing, you wanted those jewels to be sent to me, and you think that, somehow, the sight of a large collection of valuable gems is going to...overwhelm me, and I'm suddenly going to change my mind! You think that two and a half billion creds in gemstones will just leave me starstruck, and I'll forget my ethical and personal objections and come synthesize imperium for you!"

Cronus sighed, glancing over his shoulder at the microscope on his workstation. "I'm sorry if you've taken offense to my methodology," he said, giving a resigned shrug.

Endymion ran his hand over his mouth. "Cronus, I...I've spent my whole life living in the Earth Palace, have you ever been there? The whole place is covered in gems, I'm as familiar with gemstones as I am wood or steel or concrete. I'm not some...academy instructor or baker who can be bought with wealth and shiny things. Come on. Give me _some_ kind of credit."

"You're right," Cronus admitted. "It was immature and disrespectful to think that something like that would change your mind. Please, forgive me, Your Highness. I meant no offense."

"Yes, well, I've brought your package here with me, it's on my ship, and I want you to take it. All of it. It belongs to you, and I've done nothing to earn it." Endymion glanced over to Kunzite.

"Very well," Cronus conceded. "Although, perhaps, you should keep it, as a token of apology from me?"

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Absolutely not. You're taking every bit of it back."

"It's a bit of a clerical mess, since the paperwork regarding the transaction has already been submitted. It really would be easier for me if you just kept it," Cronus said.

Endymion gave a hissing little sigh, putting his arms out wide to his sides. "Cronus, come on. I see what you're doing, and it's not going to work."

Cronus stood to his feet. "Your Highness, before you leave today, I'd like to show you something."

"Cronus, I really—"

"Your Highness, please. You've come all the way out here already, there's something I'd really like you to see. It won't take long. And after we're done, I'll take the gems back if you'd still like me to."

"People know we're here," Kunzite said gruffly. "And if we don't return to the Earth Palace later today, they'll know where to look."

Cronus gave a little laugh. "You two have nothing to worry about. You'll be leaving this facility in less than two minutas if you desire it. I just really would like the Prince to have a look at something." He began moving towards the lone door out of the office. "Your Highness?"

Endymion looked at Kunzite, who had a conflicted little frown on his face. After several moments, he gave a couple of curt nods.

"You've got one minuta," Endymion said, turning around as Cronus opened his office door. "And then we're leaving, and you're taking the gems back if I have to leave them on the tarmac before I take off."

"

With a sharp crack, the massive powerful lights activated all throughout the large, high-ceilinged room. Endymion blinked a couple times rapidly, eyes watering, before he began to take measure of the hidden chamber.

Accessible via a stairwell that was concealed behind a food dispenser machine, the room was defined mainly by the colors red, black, and white, with some grey for the large vats and machines set up at intervals throughout the room. The entry point to the room led out onto a steel catwalk that spanned the length of the room, and ended with a spiral staircase that led down to the floor. Shelves of materials, stacks of black barrels, and large tubing that trailed up to the ceiling defined most of the actual contents of the room, along with the large vats.

Each step noisy thanks to the catwalk, Endymion slowly meandered down the path, head tilted downward to examine the large laboratory. He could feel Kunzite right behind him, and then Cronus right behind him. Tellu had joined the trio on their way to the chamber, looming behind her boss, silently observing.

"A secret laboratory?" Endymion questioned, turning around to look at Cronus.

"Your secret laboratory," Cronus corrected.

Endymion bristled a bit. "Cronus, if you continue to believe that there's a future for me here, then you're only going to end up disappointed."

"We'll see," Cronus said defiantly. "Viluy has been utilizing this chamber in recent cycles to synthesize imperium. We'll obviously have to refit some of the equipment to suit your needs, depending on your process. Just tell me what you need, and I can have the new equipment installed in a matter of days."

Slowly, Endymion turned out towards the lab again, then began slowly walking down the path again, heading over towards the spiral stairs.

"Whatever substances and materials you require, it will be no issue for me to acquire, in any amount needed. This laboratory receives large shipments of dozens of different chemicals and substances every few days. No one will look twice at our orders, it's understood that we conduct many experiments to try to create new medicines," Cronus boasted, Endymion quickly spinning his way down the steps, following closely by his bodyguard. Cronus and Tellu followed, as Endymion went over to a nearby silver table surface, looking it over.

"Whatever exhaust and waste is created in the process of synthesization will get put through our filtration system, and will never be detected after leaving the facility. Very few people know that this room even exists, and even fewer know what it's being used for. You could spend the rest of your life searching every corner of the universe for a situation as good as this one and not find it. You will make enough money to have a significant impact on the financial state of your Kingdom, and you will never need to spend so much as a beat thinking about how your product is being sold. Your only concern will be synthesization. You will never be caught. You will never have to worry about equipment or materials."

"It's quite a setup," Endymion said, running his right hand along the side of a giant silver vat in the middle of the room. "I can see why you've managed to stay alive and free in this business for so long."

Cronus paused a few steps away from the Prince. "I feel like there's a 'but' somewhere in there?"

Endymion gave a quick jerk of his head. "I'm afraid so. This doesn't change anything for me. I can't help you. My involvement in this business is over."

Cronus paused for a moment. "I have a new offer for you."

"It's not a matter of money," Endymion reiterated, slowly turning to look at the pharmaceutical kingpin.

"I'll give you a percentage of the business this time," Cronus said, rubbing his hands together right in front of his chest. "Twenty-five percent of gross revenue from selling the imperium. That's three and a quarter billion creds every ten days as a baseline, with the opportunity for growth as time goes by. The street price of the product will increase as we corner the market, and we may be able to take on even more at a time. You'll have the opportunity to clear a hundred and fifty billion creds a year. Maybe two hundred billion. That's the best offer I can make. You should accept it, Your Highness."

Endymion wistfully regarded the vat next to him for a moment. "You could offer me a hundred percent, and I'd still turn it down. There are things in my life more important than money."

"And those things somehow prevent you from pursuing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enrich the Kingdom you stand to inherit?" Cronus asked.

Endymion nodded slowly. "I...Cronus, you and I both got into this business for the same reasons. Family. That's what you told me. You started doing this for the sake of your family. So did I, and...well, now, my involvement in this has cost me my family. So, why would I even consider returning to it? There's no value in it for me. My wife is disgusted with me, Cronus, and I'm trying to earn her trust back right now. If I put so much as a finger back in imperium smuggling, whatever chance I have of mending things with her will be gone forever. Please, understand, that is my priority right now."

He could vaguely feel Kunzite's disapproving glare on the back of his skull at bringing up his wife, but ignored it. He couldn't help but have an informal feeling of trust with Cronus, despite his involvement in the criminal underworld and perfectly-cut double life.

"You got involved in imperium smuggling for the sake of her?" he asked.

Endymion's right temple twitched a bit as he considered how to navigate this conversation. "I was...I was trying to protect her, to advance her interests. But it was a mistake. All of it." He put his right arm out towards Cronus. "N-no offense to you, I appreciate our previous work together, but I should have never gotten involved in any of this. Again, what I did, I did for her. So why would I continue doing it, knowing that she disapproves?"

Cronus tilted his head to the right a bit, smile fading from his face as he regarded Endymion. "I have a daughter. She's twelve now. I haven't seen her since she was a toddler. She wouldn't want to see me, actually, she hates me. She's been raised to hate me. She has no choice but to hate me. All things considered, she's right to hate me. I do not expect I'll ever see her again. And yet, everything I do, I do for her. The money I make, the empires that I've built, all for her benefit, all to ensure her future is safe and secure. Because, no matter what, she is still my daughter. Even if she hates me and will never see me again, I still have a duty to protect her. That's what it is to be a man, Your Highness. Just the same, you will always be a husband to Princess Serenity, even if she hates you and disapproves of what you do. You will always have that duty to protect her, even if you have to upset her to do it."

Endymion sighed, face weakening just a bit, tilting his head down to squint at the reflective shiny table surface. "Cronus, she made herself very clear in recent times, she doesn't want me to do this."

"Because she can't see past the legality of it," Cronus stated, putting his hands behind his back and standing up as tall as he could. "Because to her, life is nothing more than a series of black and white choices, and good people choose white and bad people choose black. But you know better than that. Just like I know better than that. We both know things are always more complicated, we see the shades of grey between. So, both of us, we have to be strong, so that the women in our lives can afford to be weak. That's the deal that comes with being a man, Your Highness. Women and children, they can be weak sometimes, and we accept that, and must always be strong to protect them in their weakness. And sometimes being strong means working in your family's best interests, even if your family doesn't understand it."

Endymion bit down on his cheek, slowly turning to put his palms down flat on the shiny table in front of him. He glanced to his left, at Kunzite, then looked back down at his reflection. "Even with all that, I...Kronus, I'm sorry, but it _is_ illegal. I don't think this life suits me, I truly don't. Again, this isn't meant to be an indictment of your involvement, but I don't believe I have the...mental makeup, I suppose you'd call it, to continue. Not now."

"Illegal?" Cronus gave a little smile. "That's your hangup, now?"

"Is it really advancing her, or my, interests for me to become one of the most wanted men in the galaxy?" he asked. "There has to be a way for me to be strong and an effective husband without breaking the law."

"Oh, Your Highness, I have to confess, I'm disappointed. I thought that you, of all people, would understand the nature of the world," Cronus said in a quiet rasp.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Endymion asked, now looking just a little curious as he raised his eyebrow over at Cronus.

"I mean, I completely understand why normal, average, everyday people don't get it, they're fighting on a daily basis just to stay alive. But you, Your Highness, heir to one of the strongest Kingdoms in the galaxy, growing up in a palace, I just thought you might get it." Cronus shrugged.

"C-Cronus, what do you think I'm not getting?" Endymion pulled away from the reflective table surface, standing up as straight as he could, hands down straight at his sides.

"That there are no rules, other than the ones that we allow ourselves to believe are there," Cronus explained patiently. "It goes for every single person in this galaxy, but it should be obvious to people like you and me. I thought maybe you had already figured that part out."

Endymion gave a crooked, incredulous little grin, looking up towards the catwalk above his head. "I don't know what I was expecting when I agreed to come down here. It definitely wasn't a philosophy lesson."

"What did you used to be, Your Highness?" Cronus asked, slowly approaching the Prince.

"...u-uh...I'm sorry?" Endymion asked, visibly confused, whipping his head back down to look over at Cronus. "What does that mean? What are you talking about?"

"I mean millions of years ago, Your Highness. Before civilization, before law and order. Before humans. You used to be gorillas. And when a gorilla decided he wanted something, he only had to ask two questions. Could he take it, and could he defend it from being taken from him? If the answer to those questions was yes, then he could have it. Could have been food, territory, a mate, whatever. The strongest thrived, for no other reason than that they were strong. That's all there was to it. So, Your Highness, by breaking the law, defying the agency, and living a double life to make money over the last several cycles, the truth is, you're more of a man. You're more of a man now than you would be had you just spent all your time in the Earth Palace with your wife and child."

Endymion jerked his head back a bit, sizing up Cronus. "I...I'm not a gorilla, Cronus. None of us are. I'm a human."

"You've got more in common with one than you realize," Cronus countered calmly. "Or, if you'd prefer, just look back at your ancestors. Aethnos lived just over a thousand years ago, if I recall. Eleven hundred years, maybe. Every bit as 'human' as you are. And what was he, but a man who one day realized he was stronger and smarter than everyone around him? Realized that he had the attributes to rise to power, unify the many nations of Earth under his rule, strike down anyone who stood in his way, and take the title of King of Earth for himself. There was no rule, no law, that told him he could do any of that. He merely realized that he could do it. And he did. And because of that, the men in your family have been ruling over the Earth Kingdom for over a millennium. You owe your birthright, your wealth, and your power to the decisions that Aethnos made all those generations ago. You think the people he cut through on his way up thought what he was doing was 'fair'? That he was justified in doing any of it?" He gave a tiny little smile. "But he did it. Because he understood. And now, it's your turn to understand."

Endymion, who had been vacillating between bemusement, sadness, and confusion throughout Cronus's pitch, couldn't help but be rather obviously transfixed by him now. Of course, he knew very well the story of his ancestors, but Cronus gave it a certain captivating flavor.

"Life is a tide, Your Highness. Beating down on all of us, trying to shape us, pound us into submission, until we all look like and act like it wants us to. To some people, it's a boss, a parent, a wife, the law. You might be a Prince, but it beats on you too. And this, right here, this is your opportunity to stand up to it. So, stand up to it, and let it know that deep down, where it counts, you're still an ape." He took a quick couple of steps back, away from Endymion. "Or else, you might just get washed away."

Endymion stared down Cronus as he backed away. The scientist gave a sharp little palm slap to the surface of the silver table, prompting Endymion to startle out of his intensely focused trance.

"Think about it," Cronus said, backing towards the spiral stairs. "Tellu will escort you out whenever you're ready. I'll make sure you have my personally communicator frequency, call me any time." With that, he spun around, taking the metal steps two at a time up to the catwalk.

Endymion looked down at the impeccably clean floor, forehead furrowed deeply, putting his hand up over his mouth as he mulled over Cronus's words. He felt Kunzite step up right next to him, patiently waiting for him to prompt a course of action, which he was not yet capable of offering.

"

Endymion laid back flat on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, atop his sheets, still fully dressed. His mind raced as his body laid relatively dormant, eyes flickering from one spot on the high-above ceiling to the next.

He lifted his head up at the sound of a door sliding open. Serenity emerged from the bathroom, hurriedly heading towards the door out into the palace hallways, a blank and unreadable expression on her face, not giving any indication she was even aware of Endymion's presence.

"Um, Serenity," Endymion said, sitting up. He waited for her to stop, to look over at him, or at least say something to let him know that she had heard him, but she did none of these things. Within a matter of beats, she was slipping out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Endymion sighed, shaking his head as he looked down at the carpet. He steepled his hands and pressed them to his mouth, then found his gaze being pulled over to the communicator on his bedside desk.

He took some time to slowly scan the room, as if he might find someone else in there. But, with Serenity's departure, he was alone. He swallowed down hard, then scrambled up the bed, reaching over to grab his communicator.

He fiddled with the dials for a moment, then pressed the center button on the disc. Slowly, he plugged the earpiece into his ear canal, then waited.

"Evening, Cronus?" he said, speaking into the disc. "I, uh, I hope I didn't wake you." He nodded. "Alright, good. So, um, the offer you made me earlier. Is it still open?"


	30. Don't Call It A Comeback

Chapter 30: Don't Call It A Comeback

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one as well...life got busy. Should be faster for the next month or so.

"

Princess Serenity pushed her long blonde tails of hair over her shoulders, sweeping them behind her as she marched down the hallway. Expression neutral and flat, her physical energy had seemingly been redirected into purposeful, efficient motions designed to accomplish goals, rather than the more vertical, bubbly, exuberant vigor she had typically displayed her entire life. Such loss of innocence and playfulness was an obvious side effect of being forced into such an awful and inescapable situation.

She could hardly see the ornate, gilded hallway around her anymore, no more than she could see the luxurious bedroom that she spent much of her time in. The expensive construction and priceless decor was lost on her more and more with each passing day. It all started to feel like dull concrete barriers and cold metal bars. Only by forcing herself to be numb to all of it could she put up a good front. And despite how unhappy she was, she did realize the necessity to put up a good front.

She went over to the door to Endymion's bedroom and wrenched it open, intent on quickly grabbing a couple of Chibiusa's picture books and leaving, spending as little time around Endymion as possible. However, that plan was quickly ruined, as on her entry, she was forced into a surprised gasp. She froze a half-step into the room, momentarily forgetting her intentions to be as quick as she could.

A couple paces in front of the bed, two stacks of sealed luggage sacks had been erected, giant leather containers which were visibly bulging with the size of their loads. Endymion, turned away from her, was sitting at the foot of the bed, a peaceful smile on his face as he looked over at the stack of luggage. Serenity's eyes darted over to the bedside table, noticing that most of her things, such as a couple of picture frames and her communicator charger, were gone. She then made a brief glance over up at the wall to the left of the bed, seeing that the dagger she had received from Princess Venus as a gift had also been taken down. Slowly, she looked over at her husband, who got to his feet.

"You can look around, see if I missed anything," he said quietly. "I'll drop you off."

She was struggling to believe it, not wanting to misinterpret anything and get her expectations up based off of them. Staring at Endymion, she squinted a bit and tilted her head. "Drop me off? Where?"

Endymion turned towards her. "Home."

"

The anti-gravity pad powered down, slowly settling the piles of luggage down on the carpeted floor in Serenity's bedroom, right by Serenity's left foot. She slowly looked around her semi-abandoned and neglected bedroom, arms crossed over her chest, mind quickly populating the barren chamber with the contents of the leather sacks next to her foot. She closed her eyes, taking in a huge, heaving breath, then gradually pushing it out.

A light giggle from behind her snapped her out of it, and she turned around to find Endymion kneeling in front of a baby carrier, right hand reaching down towards the toddler within, running his fingers along her cheeks and chin. She felt that the situation was so delicate and fragile, she refrained from getting upset at him. Endymion glanced up, and on seeing that Serenity was looking at him, he got back to his feet and approached her.

After getting a couple steps from her, he stopped, and the two just stared at each other. She didn't dare let her guard down enough to actually display any degree of happiness or warmth. Endymion, by contrast, looked relaxed and content.

"I'll have the midwives moved here in the next few days. Assuming you're ready to house them," he began, breaking the verbal silence that the two had been holding since boarding The Bastion for the quick flight over to the Moon Palace. "If I find anything down there that belongs to you, I'll send it here."

She dropped her head down a bit, giving him a suspicious glare.

"Obviously, people are going to ask for the details. So I figure, we just keep it vague. We're not getting along, things aren't working it, um…what's that phrase they use? Irreconcilable differences? That's what most couples that break up say, isn't it?" Endymion shrugged. "Something like that."

"I thought we couldn't separate," she said.

"We aren't," he clarified. "But just because we're married doesn't mean we have to be around each other. We've already produced an heir, so the base function of a royal union has been resolved. At this point, you can just stay in your palace, and I'll stay in mine."

There was a flat resignation in Endymion's voice. Serenity was tempted to take him seriously. Her crooked eyebrows evened out a bit.

"When you married me, you didn't sign up for being with someone who...has done the things that I've done. And it's not fair for me to ask you to force yourself to be okay with it after the fact," he admitted. "So, we'll just stay married officially, the union will hold, Chibiusa will be heir to the throne, everyone's happy...and we'll keep to ourselves from now on."

"And what's stopping you from having some...mood swing tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever, and come barging in here?" she asked, still not all the way to being able to trust him. "If we're still married, then you have a...what was it? 'Right' to be around me?"

Endymion gave a thin smile. "Right. Well, I have a few things for you." He quickly stepped over to the stack of luggage, identifying one on the top of the right stack and pulling the side pocket open. He pulled a few sheets of paper from it, holding it up in front of him. "I understand that you might have difficulty trusting me to hold up my end, so I had this made for you. I had Zoisite get it drafted, so you can trust that it's going to hold up." He went back over to Serenity and extended the trio of sheets towards her.

"What's this?" she asked, taking it and looking over a long document of small black text.

"It's called a mutual restraining order," he explained. "Once that document is filled out and filed, it will be illegal for me to be within a hundred haplouns of you."

She flipped up the first page, looking at the second, eyes darting around the small writing. "W-who would enforce something like that? You're the Crown Prince of Earth. It's not as if...you'd actually get arrested, or anyone would actually force you to leave me alone." She blinked a couple times, glancing up to give Endymion a stern gaze.

"It'll be enforced," he said, giving a couple quick nods. "There's a reason why it's called a mutual restraining order. Check the last page."

She did as he instructed, finding another page of text, with a couple of lines meant for signatures at the bottom. One of them held Endymion's fancy sequence of pen-marks. She couldn't help but have her eyes go a little wide.

"With my signature on that document, as well as yours, it will be understood that this is what we both want. So, all relevant law enforcement agencies will enforce it to the letter. We'll still be married, but I won't be allowed to go near you." He gave a sweeping nod. "I know it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do."

"What about our parents?" she asked, being pushed and pulled between the desire to simply accept her victory and take yes for an answer and the desire to make sure her Kingdom would be safe through this. "If they find out there's a restraining order that we _both_ signed, then...well, they're not going to just accept that." She swallowed down a lump in her throat, fighting back waves of strong emotion. "They're going to want to know why this happened. They won't just accept 'irreconcilable differences'."

"We'll keep them at arm's length. We're both adults, they'll have to respect our right to make decisions of our own volition, as well as our privacy." He shrugged. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy or fun, but...it has to be better than you being miserable all the time down on Earth."

Gradually, with a couple of blinks of her large eyes, Serenity's face wrinkles started to smooth out.

"Just one more thing, and then I'll be gone," he said, going back over to the luggage case he had taken the documents from, unbuckling the straps holding it closed. "Had things been done by the book, and the imperium vein reported to the agency back when I first found it, the Moon would have received a payment. So, in the interest of being fair, I want you to have this."

Serenity came over in time to see him swing the lid of the case open, and she released an audible gasp. The container was loaded with pink diamonds of assorted sizes.

"We can't determine what the agency would have given the Moon, but...well, this should at least put a dent in it. They're pretty stingy these days, so I imagine this should cover it, actually." He looked up at her. "You have that vault in your closet, right?"

She gave a little nod.

"Keep it in there for now. You can ask Zoisite to help you launder it into the treasury or the vaults if you'd like. But once I'm named High King, it'll be much easier, so if you could just hold onto it until then, that'd probably be for the best. But I want you to have it. You're at the very least, entitled to this much."

Serenity stared down at the gemstones, visibly shaken and affected. She squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a couple shakes, looking over at Endymion. "I-If I...take this. Knowing where it came from. That would make an...a, uh...an attachment after the fact."

"Accessory," Endymion corrected with what could have passed as a playful grin. "So let's just say that it was a pathetic, desperate attempt on my part to earn your favor back with a gaudy gift, if anyone finds out about it. Which they shouldn't."

Tightly pressing her lips together, she glanced back at the jewels, rubbing her chin. "Endymion, I...I don't know."

"Serenity, I've done enough bad things to you already. I don't want to add robbing you to the list." He reached forward and put his hand on her right shoulder. "I know it's not ideal, but at this point, it's the best I can do."

Serenity, with some effort and time taken, nodded. Endymion reached forward and closed the container back up, re-strapping it.

"I'm sorry, Serenity. I love you, and all I ever wanted was to make you happy. I never, ever, wanted to hurt you. But, I did." He turned back to her. "So, you're out now. Forever. Just try to make the best of things from now on. And if you ever need help, need anything at all, I'll be there for you. Just ask."

She slowly let her arms drop back down to her sides.

"Just, one thing. I know you don't want to see me anymore, and I understand. But...Chibiusa. I'm her father, and I'd like to be able to see her sometimes. I love her, and she means the world to me. If you could just consider some sort of arrangement where I get to see her every now and then, I'd really appreciate it. Just think about it." He looked over his shoulder at the bedroom door. "Well, I think that's it. Sign those papers, file them with the Moon Palace Guard, they'll circulate it, and that'll be that. Call me if you want to discuss something." He cleared his throat, looking at the far wall of the room. "Alright, I...I suppose that's it. If you don't want to ever see me again, then after today, you won't have to. So...this is goodbye." He nodded over towards her graciously.

With that, he turned and strided off towards the door, Serenity left standing there in mild shock. She rubbed her eyes, expecting the luggage cases to suddenly vanish and her surroundings to puff away and be replaced by Endymion's bedroom back on Earth, but no such thing happened. She had gotten what she wanted, and gotten it for no other reason than the source of her suffering had decided to give it to her.

"Hey."

Endymion paused, twisting around to look at his wife, who was giving a hesitant look over at him. The papers held at her side, she made a couple expressive little gestures with her eyebrows, highly conflicted.

"...thank you," she muttered, unable to settle on anything more meaningful.

He nodded, then a few steps later departed the room, leaving Serenity to stand there, lifting the documents back up in front of her to read them. However, her eyes did little more than just vacantly scan the words, not taking in any information, still too wrapped up in the significant happenings of the last couple minutas to really absorb information.

"

"Each tube furnace has a maximum capacity of just over twenty-five congii," Viluy explained, gently tapping her palm on the top of one of the long, rectangular pieces of equipment that stretched across the floor of part of the laboratory. Four identical pieces of shiny lab equipment were laid out alongside this one, each one connected via thick tubing to a large steel vat in the middle of the room. "More than enough power down here to run all five at once."

"We'll need far more power than that," Kunzite said flatly, going over to the tube furnace Viluy indicated and carefully cracking open the hinged lid, peering inside the tube-shaped body.

"Absolutely, and you'll have it," Viluy assured him. "We did a test run yesterday, all five furnaces were running at full power, the ventilation system was at maximum, we even had all the lights on. No problems." She nodded proudly. "Not any great surprise, we were using plenty of power down here when it was me doing the synthesization."

"I'll believe it after a few full days of operation," Kunzite insisted, closing the top of the furnace. "A test run wouldn't even scratch the surface of the strain we're going to put on the wiring. Your boss wants five thousand libras every ten days, so we're going to be drawing massive amounts of power over ten percent of the time going forward. Wouldn't shock me if we had to swap out the wires every cycle."

Viluy picked up a small tablet on top of one of the other furnaces, looking down at it. "In any case, twenty-five congiis translates to two hundred and fifty libras per furnace. That's one thousand and a quarter libras per batch, the vat has a maximum capacity of exactly that, so four batches every ten days."

Kunzite shook his head. "Cutting it too close. Filling everything to maximum capacity introduces some difficulties that affects the purity. Your boss insisted on ninety-nine percent minimum. We go five batches, a thousand each."

"Up to you," Viluy conceded. "Now, we've confirmed we'll have unlimited access to all the substances and materials you requested." She pointed over across the room at the far wall, where several yellow barrels were stacked. "That's the boron fluid, I know that's the most important thing. Salium is in the jugs in the right corner back there."

"We need eight culeuses of boron fluid per cycle, that's sixteen of those barrels," Kunzite warned.

"Not even a concern," she assured him. "So, Kunzite, I...I couldn't help but apply some basic critical thinking when you submitted the required substances. I assume that the salium is for soaking the catalyst bed."

Kunzite was hardly paying attention to Viluy, marching across the large room to look over the barrels and jugs that she had just indicated. She dutifully followed him over, a slanted smile on her face.

"But I couldn't help but wonder, doesn't the salium dry up too fast? I've worked with it before, of course, and my experience is that it tends to dry out rather quickly, and given the need of the catalyst bed in something like imperium synthesization...well, how does it work?"

Kunzite kneeled down by the rows of shelved jugs, pulling one out from the bottom and unscrewing the cap. He lifted it up underneath his nostrils, taking a light sniff before resealing it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I...I suppose you have more important things on your mind right now," she said. "My apologies, I'm just...I love lab work! I love working with chemicals, it...it makes me feel alive, you know? And knowing that there's some...magic formula out there that synthesizes imperium almost perfectly that nobody can figure out, it's just, I can't help but be curious! I'm really so excited to have the opportunity to learn all about it, and...look, if you'd like to see my certifications in this field, then I could definitely bring those out. They're among the finest in the galaxy, I assure you. I can guarantee you will have no issues with me as a lab assistant."

"How many people were involved in setting this laboratory up?" Kunzite asked, having no reaction to any of Viluy's energetic declarations or assumptions. "How many know about this lab?"

"O-oh, the setup was...supervised by me, and handled exclusively by Cronus's most trusted lieutenants. I promise you have nothing to worry about on that front, knowledge of you working here in this capacity will be kept entirely to half-a-dozen people total." Viluy clapped her hands together in front of her.

Kunzite nodded. "It's sufficient, then. That's all I need from you." He reached down towards his left hip, removing the communicator from his waist.

"Ah, communicators won't work down here, actually," she said eagerly, pointing up towards the catwalk. "We have to go above ground."

Kunzite glanced up at the door leading back up to the facility, then hoisted the communicator up in front of his mouth. "We'll see about that." He quickly tapped a couple of buttons and switches on the front of the disc. "Your Highness, are you receiving?"

"Loud and clear," Endymion replied, drawing a little jerk of reflexive movement from Viluy.

"Wow!" she gasped under her breath. "That audio clarity, you may as well be outside!"

Kunzite shot her an annoyed side glance. He held his thumb down on a button on the side of the communicator. "As I just said, that's all I need from you."

"O-oh, I'm...sorry, I...right," she said, voice kicking down a couple octaves. She scrambled across the room over towards the spiral stairs leading up to the catwalk, shoes loudly clapping on the hard floor as she moved with urgency.

Kunzite watched her retreat for a moment, then released his finger off the communicator's side button. "We're all set up here, Your Highness. We can start at any time." As he spoke he whipped the earpiece out of the communicator as well, pushing it into his ear.

"Oh, great. Thank you," Endymion replied. "I handled things over here with Serenity."

Kunzite's eyes tracked Viluy as she quickly traversed the catwalk out towards the laboratory's lone exit. "And how did that go?"

"I'm actually...feeling quite good about the future," Endymion said tentatively. "It went well. I think it's best for everyone, and we'll all be happier for it."

"That's...well, certainly one way to look at it," Kunzite said gruffly. "Have you spoken to your father yet?"

"I'm having dinner with him tonight, I'll handle it then," Endymion replied.

"

Endymion sidled up next to Kasios, craning his head down towards the table surface where the High King was indicating a sheet of paper that contained a bullet-pointed list on the left side and a detailed sketch of a tall, thin man wearing a tuxedo, plus a masquerade mask on his face, on the right side. Although the Prince couldn't help but tense up at the sight of the detailed, fairly accurate depiction of himself, he was quick to relax as Kasios's demeanor remained friendly and amicable.

A pair of mostly-cleaned dinner plates lay abandoned in front of the two royals, marking evidence of a recently-concluded meal, and attention was now focused on the heavily-inked document Kasios had presented.

"I didn't know what to do, so I went back to the start," Kasios explained. "Librum. That's the first place this Tuxedo Mask started showing up, when he was just selling a couple uncias at a time. Figured, maybe there was some reason why he started there. Was as good a lead as any."

"So, you don't think this guy is dead?" Endymion asked. "You said that's what a lot of the council thinks right now, and...I mean, based off what you said, it makes sense, right?"

Kasios gave an irritated grunt. "It's certainly a popular theory right now. A lot of assumptions being made. More than one person up on _The Savery_ implied I was wasting agency resources by combing through Librum. I guess I just don't want to believe it. Maybe I should, but there's just too much we don't know yet." He tapped his index finger on the drawing in front of him. "So anyway, we didn't really find much. If he lived there before, doesn't seem like he lives there now, his product isn't on the streets, nothing like that. But check this out. We found a guy who swears up and down that he saw Tuxedo Mask up close and personal, back when he was first starting. See, back then, he was actually selling his product in-person, out in public. I mean, right after he became notorious, a bunch of jokers started impersonating him, but this guy, he's sure that he saw him before all that happened."

Endymion tried to casually prop his elbow up on the table and rest his chin against his palm. "So, he saw...Tuxedo Mask...and drew a picture of him?"

Kasios gave a little laugh. "No, not exactly. As it happens, this guy we found has one of those eidetic memories. If he sees something, he packs it away in that brain of his and it never fades. So he says, anyway. He came forward while we were going through Librum, said he had a physical description. Check it out." He dragged his finger along the left side of the document. "Top hat, twenty-four and a half pollexes around, so kind of a big head. Brand of the hat an Ornstein or a Folwick, based off the description. Mask, seemed to be made out of cloth. Tuxedo, a golden three-button Sterling with sharp tips. Undershirt, three buttons. Cape, black outside, red inside, Sterling. White gloves. Black pants, brand impossible to determine. Black shoes, might be Asus or Rolant. Took us like four minutas to reason all this out based off his descriptions, but it's pretty detailed, isn't it?"

The fingernails of Endymion's right hand were digging into his thigh now, as he tried to redirect all of his discomfort and concern into this act. The image he presented to his father remained one of mild interest.

"I-I mean...I've heard that those eidetic memories are kind of a myth," Endymion said quickly, glancing over to his right briefly. "Some people have better memories than others, but...I don't know, actually thinking that someone can tell how big someone's head is by looking at their hat for a little bit? I'm not sure I buy it."

"Oh, I'm absolutely not married to any of this, I'm not nearly stupid enough for that," Kasios said dismissively. "My point is more, I used two hundred agency operatives, spent like three million creds, and this is all I have to show for it." He shook his head. "Hey, maybe you'll be seeing me around a lot more soon, I might get fired."

Endymion's right arm relaxed, his fingertips extracting themselves from digging into his skin and moving to rest in his lap instead. "Ah. Well, you have to be willing to waste some time and resources when you're investigating a complicated case. I'm sure they'll understand."

"I just can't believe how bad this Tuxedo Mask is making us look," Kasios said darkly. "I've been doing this for awhile now, and there hasn't been a single smuggler or chemist who we weren't able to put on his or her heels within a couple of cycles, but this asshole...it's unreal."

Endymion unconsciously reached over and put his hand on his father's right shoulder. "He's not making you look bad if he's dead. Maybe it's just that simple."

"Bah," he grumbled. "I didn't want him dead. I wanted him in handcuffs." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, thanks for listening to all that, I just wanted to...to go over this stuff with someone who wouldn't just tell me I'm being obsessive and wasting time."

"I'm always here for you, dad," Endymion assured him.

He sighed, staring down at the drawing. "You know, if you're willing to give this eidetic memory guy a bit of credit, then one thing you could say is, this guy must have been doing pretty well for himself beforehand."

"How do you figure that?" Endymion asked.

"Ornstein hat, Sterling tuxedo and cape, Asus shoes, you don't find that stuff on the discount rack. Those are high-end, tailored clothing brands, expensive. Even by the standards of a tuxedo, Sterling is about as good as it gets. You know, _my_ tuxedos are Sterlings. Some of them, anyway. Yours too."

Endymion, mouth going slightly dry, nodded.

"So, i guess we could add that to the character profile. Was rich before entering imperium smuggling."

"Or maybe he stole some nice clothes," Endymion said, casually shrugging.

With a wry smile, Kasios shook his head. "You see how complicated this shit is? You try to make one assumption, one educated guess, to narrow it down a bit, and it takes about two beats to rip it to shreds."

"S-sorry. Just saying," the Prince said sheepishly.

"But hey, here's what I figure. I convince the agency to devote all their resources to doing a search of every single closet in the entire galaxy, trying to find people who have Ornstein hats, Sterling tuxedos and capes, and Asus shoes. Should take about four hundred years, and when we're done, we might have the suspect list down to three million people." Kasios bit down on his lower lip. "What do you think, huh? You think the Grandmaster would go for that?" he asked with a laugh.

Endymion was able to produce a thin smile.

"How about we start with your closet?" Kasios said with a playful smirk. "Hey, you've got a pretty big head, don't you? Twenty-four and a half around sounds about right."

Endymion, with a sarcastic roll of his eyes, released Kasios's shoulder and put both of his hands up in the air above his head, palms out. "Oh boy, looks like you're on to me," he said jokingly.

"I mean, that's honestly one of the best ideas I have right now," Kasios said. "Just start searching closets." He looked up at the empty, forgotten dinner plate. "Aw, wow, you know...son, I'm sorry, that's more than enough about me. Gods, I spent the whole dinner blathering on about agency crap, what's going on with you?"

"Hey, it's fine," Endymion assured him. "Your work is plenty interesting. I'm fine. I do have one pretty cool thing to tell you about, but, it's so damn insignificant compared to your work, don't even worry."

"Oh, go ahead," Kasios urged.

"W-well, you know Cronus, obviously. You introduced us at the opera on Neptune," Endymion started. "So—"

"Oh yeah, definitely, know him well," Kasios said.

Endymion cleared his throat. "He offered me an apprenticeship at their new laboratory on Deimos, learning under his finest scientists. Said my test results and scores were so good, he couldn't stop himself from at least making the offer. He thinks that after a year, I could get a diamond certification in medical science."

Kasios looked rather taken aback at this. "W-wait, you're thinking about accepting?"

"I am accepting," Endymion said, absentmindedly tapping his fingers on the table surface in front of him. "Already decided. I took a look at the schedule I'd need to keep and the work I'd be doing, and I think it sounds like a great idea."

"Oh, s-son, I...I agree, it sounds like a great idea, but...are you sure?" He raised an eyebrow at his son.

"It's not like I have many duties around here, what with you being a workaholic. All I do is meet with governors and diplomats every now and then when you need someone to fill-in for you. I want something productive and meaningful to do with my time, and you've said before it's a good idea for members of royalty to prove they're capable and intelligent on their own merits. What could be better than a diamond certification? And next year, who knows, you might need me around here more, or I might even be on the throne. I should do it now."

"Well, yes, all that sounds fantastic, and normally I'd be completely behind you, but...you just got married not that long ago, and last I checked you were having problems. You just had a kid, too! Are you really sure you want to be spending a bunch of time away from the palace right now?" Kasios spread his hands to his sides for a brief second.

"Ah," Endymion said uneasily. "Okay, you're going to be tempted to panic a little bit, just...just try to stay calm." He put his left palm out towards him. "So, here's the thing. I let Serenity move out with Chibiusa."

Endymion saw Kasios's entire body jolt a bit at that revelation, so he quickly thrust his palm out towards him. "Don't panic, don't freak out, just...hear me out."

"Endymion, what are you...are you serious?!" he asked. "W-why would you do that?! What's going on?!"

Endymion sighed, a crestfallen frown on his face. "Dad, she wasn't happy and things weren't getting better. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but it was getting to the point where it was cruel for me to force her to stay. I'm giving her space now, it's the only thing to do."

Kasios gave a rattling little huff. "Endymion, I...jeez, what the hell happened? What, exactly, is she so upset about? This doesn't make any sense!" He hunched over the table, putting his hand up to his forehead.

"I'm not comfortable discussing that with anyone yet," Endymion said sternly. "It's between me and her."

"Well, Endymion, I hear you on that, but...it affects me too, you know. It does! Your marriage changed things a lot, and...and I mean...if this is headed some place permanent, then that's something I need to know about! That affects me!" He gave his son a bit of a desperate look. "Just, if you could just let me in on this a little bit, maybe I could help! Or at least, let me know what's going on so I can prepare to deal with the fallout."

Endymion, with some effort, didn't display any emotion. "Dad, the answer is no. This is a private matter with me and my wife. I can promise we're not going to get legally separated, and the Kingdom already has an heir from our marriage. That's all you need to concern yourself with."

"A royal couple that doesn't even live in the same palace is a bad look," Kasios said. "When it gets out that you two aren't even on the same planet anymore, there are going to be a _lot_ of questions. Just, please, tell me that this is eventually going to get better."

"I can't promise anything in that regard. All I know is that right now, she needs space." Endymion stood to his feet. "She could come back tomorrow, could never come back in a hundred years, I can't say. But she was perpetually angry here, and I didn't want to force her to remain in that state anymore. So, back to the original point, I think me spending some time away from the palace might actually be the best thing for everyone."

Kasios, with a lazy drooping of his shoulders and a stretched-out grunt, finally gave a reluctant nod. "I...I suppose so. A-alright, um, sure. Yeah, apprenticeship under Cronus, that's a great idea for you. Sorry, son, I just...I just can't help but wonder what's going on with you and Serenity."

"Oh, believe me. I'm still wondering myself," Endymion said.

"

Endymion reached down to bring the right arm of the bright orange jumpsuit up so he could shove his right arm into the sleeve. With a tug on the front, he started to zip the protective gear up his chest.

"Him being upset is fine," he said, looking over his shoulder, then reaching behind him to grab the orange hood attached to the neck of the suit, pulling it up over his head. "I knew he was going to be upset, I just need him to back off."

Kunzite, already in his protective suit, was checking the seal around a breathing mask, closely examining the rubber along the outer edges. "Do you really believe he'll be able to stop himself from demanding answers after six cycles of Serenity living in the Moon Palace? A year? Your plan doesn't seem to be taking the long-term into account."

"He can demand all he wants, this isn't his business and he'll have to respect that," Endymion replied coolly. "Besides, I did the right thing, didn't I?"

Kunzite paused for a moment, setting the mask down on the long silver table in front of him. "I suppose."

"If I'm going to get back into this business, I can't possibly justify keeping her there," he said quietly. "I'm sure it's the right thing, Kunzite. And sometimes the right thing isn't easy."

With a quiet little squeaking accompanying each step, Endymion went up to a large red square container on the table next to Kunzite, sliding the lid open and peeking inside.

"I hope you're not already hungry," Kunzite said. "We're going to be here all day since we have to learn how to use the new equipment."

"No, no, just checking," Endymion said. "So, anyway...let's get started."

Both young men startled a bit as the distinctive sound of the above door opening sounded off, each of them glancing up at the above catwalk to find Viluy quickly scrambling across it.

"D-don't start without me!" she said, practically sliding down the spiral stairway. "Let me suit up, I want to be part of every step!"

Endymion stared at her as she managed to go from the door to the floor in record time, then slowly gave Kunzite a confused look. He wordlessly pointed over towards her as she sprinted over towards the steel lockers in the back left corner.

Kunzite gave a reluctant little sigh. "Right. So, we might need to discuss this first."


	31. Fly Meets Ointment

Chapter 31: Fly Meets Ointment

A/N: Thank you to all my readers for 6,000 total hits on this story now. Your continued support in whatever capacity you support me is greatly appreciated.

"

"So, I feel like maybe certain expectations are being held that shouldn't be, perhaps," Kunzite said into the receiver of his communicator, a guarded look on his face as he craned his head to the left, looking around the massive grey vat in the middle of the room, over at the lockers in the corner. Viluy, suited up in the body-protecting outfit, was standing there, hands drooping down at her sides, looking rather confused and tentative. "This synthesization, it's a two-man job. There's a sort of understanding that exists between me and Endymion, that allows us to work together effectively and efficiently."

"Viluy is highly qualified. Among the most qualified chemists in the galaxy. Surely having three people is better than two?" Cronus's voice fed into Kunzite's ear via the earpiece.

"N-no, not especially. If anything, it's the opposite. This task needs one chemist and one assistant, that's it. Viluy is not needed, and regardless of her efforts or intentions, will just get in the way." Kunzite turned away, looking down the opposite side of the room, over at the barrels of boron fluid.

"Are you sure that's still the case? The batches you're making are orders of magnitude bigger now," Cronus replied.

"If I believe that things have changed, then I will let you know. But for now, I must ask that me and the Prince are allowed complete control over the laboratory. If you want fifteen thousand libras of ninety-nine percent pure product every cycle, then every little variable matters. It's nothing against Viluy, but it's the way we need to do things."

For a few beats, the connection was silent.

"Tell Viluy to take my call at her desk," Cronos said. "I'll have her informed of your terms for the laboratory."

"Thank you." Kunzite tugged the earpiece out of his ear, lowering the disc back to his belt, and then marched around the vat over towards where Viluy remained rooted, Endymion maybe a half-dozen paces away against the left wall.

"I...I just don't understand," she said meekly, Kunzite quickly closing the distance between the two. "I've been synthesizing imperium for years, there _must_ be a way in which I can help you."

"Cronus is calling you at your desk, he wants you to go take it," Kunzite said sternly.

"Would...would you like to see my certifications?" Viluy asked.

"It's not personal. Now go." Kunzite pointed up to the catwalk above his head.

With a hopeful glance at Endymion, who offered nothing to her implied request, she began to slowly unzip the front of the protective jumpsuit that she had only just slipped on. Kunzite and Endymion exchanged an awkward little side glance as she begrudgingly pulled the thick orange suit down towards her feet.

She quickly disrobed, not saying anything to either Endymion or Kunzite, and then withdrew herself up the spiral staircase to the catwalk. They both slowly watched her depart, across the catwalk, over to the door, sensing her disappointment and frustration. Finally, with a bit more force than required, the door was slammed shut behind her.

"It goes without saying, but be careful about what you say to her in particular," Kunzite warned, looking back down at his charge. "There aren't very many people in the galaxy with enough chemistry knowledge to produce imperium of this purity, regardless of if they know the formula or not, and she is likely one of them. I'd prefer to keep ourselves as valuable as possible."

"You definitely don't need to tell me twice," Endymion said quietly. "I'm not saying a word to her about anything."

"

Cassandra startled up from her prone position on the thin cot in the back right corner of the room as the loud thud of her steel cell door swinging open jarred her from her aimless daydreams. The above ceiling light, thankfully dim and gentle, sprang to life as well. She curled her knees up close to her chest, pressing her back into the metallic wall.

She had only been up on _The Savery_ for just under two cycles, but the experience had already done a number on her, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There were few things more hopeless than being held prisoner on the most securely-protected location in the entire galaxy, and the fact that it was a man-made, artificial construct just made things feel all the worse. It became so easy to lose track of your sense of time and have every single moment that passed become completely indistinguishable from the last. Her once-sharp eyes and expression had dulled significantly, she had thinned out a good amount, and her dark hair hung around her face in a ratty mop.

As two large men in guard uniforms entered, she assumed she was going to be escorted to another interrogation. It had been about a cycle since her last round of questions, so she had hoped that they had at the very least abandoned any hope of getting information out of her, so she couldn't help but give an annoyed groan and roll of the eyes. After a beat or two, a third man, this one tall and thin with gold-rimmed glasses, entered as well.

"Miss Cassandra," he said, voice finely clipped. "Please, come with me."

"I don't know anything," she grumbled, nevertheless slowly planting her feet onto the cot so she could push herself into a standing position. "Just let me...just please leave me alone, at the very least. I really don't have anything to say to you."

"We know," he replied. "We need to go over some information and have you sign a few things. Once you're done, we're handing you off."

"W-what?" she stammered, looking up at the trio of men before her. "What does that mean?"

"There's been some new information in the last several days," he explained. "Long story short, it would seem that you were framed as part of a complicated redirect operation by imperium smugglers."

Cassandra had been beaten into such a depressed state that she couldn't quite bring herself to be overly excited, but was dimly aware that her circumstances were suddenly looking much better. "W...I...so...you mean…"

"You'll have to sign off on an agreement to accept the time you've already served here. We're prepared to offer you a compensation package in exchange for your acceptance." He glanced down at the small tablet in his right hand.

"So...I'm free to go?" she asked.

"Well, not exactly," he admitted. "According to this, we're handing you off to the royal house on Jupiter, some sort of charges of embezzlement that were superseded by our charges. You'll have to answer for those. But in terms of imperium smuggling charges...we're dropping them."

A shaky little smile found its way to her face, though it flashed through for only a brief moment. Things had been going so poorly for her recently, she wouldn't have been shocked if this was some sort of prank to get her to put her guard down.

"Miss?" he prompted. "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded quickly, pushing herself away from the wall. "Y-yes, I...sorry, yes. Let's go."

"

Slowly, Endymion strolled down the line of massive U.V. Ray Ovens, peering through the glass window on the front of each. Each large heated chamber held several clear trays layered on top of each other, each tray loaded with a thick plate of synthesized imperium.

"Nothing's going to happen," Kunzite said. "This is really the most uninteresting part of the process."

"I just can't help but be fascinated by this part," he said quietly. "Just as it's actually being transformed into a usable substance. Thinking about everything you could accomplish with it. All the things that people all across the galaxy will do with just this."

Kunzite gave a little nod, then went over to the counter space on the far side of the room, where the large red container was currently sitting.

"And this was just from one day. Think of what we can accomplish in this laboratory in just...one cycle. One year. Yes, we definitely did the right thing, coming here. All the good we can do, we owe it to the universe."

Kunzite pulled a fat, green bottle out of the container, setting it down on the counter space, then reached back into the box and removed a pair of clear, thin glasses with long stems. Sealing the box back up, he ripped away a little paper seal on the mouth of the bottle. "I thought we might celebrate the first batch."

Endymion swung around to watch as Kunzite pulled a small cork out of the mouth of the bottle. "Who are you and what have you done with my general?"

Kunzite gave a small smile as he started to pour a small quantity of the red liquid into each glass. "Kenney, aged fifty-five years. Quarter million a bottle. Just fifteen percent alcohol, you pay for the taste. This I have more appreciation for than just trying to overwhelm the drinker a high percentage."

Endymion slowly came across the room, towards his guardian, pulling the hood on his protective gear down to his shoulders as he went over.

"You see all this?" Endymion pointed to his sides, indicating the various furnaces and the massive vat. "The, the laboratory, the chemistry, the...the synthesization?"

"Yes," Kunzite said, re-sealing the bottle and setting it down next to the container. "You think we should change the layout?"

"No, no, nothing like that, what I'm saying is...this is all this is to us, from now on, for however long we remain in this line of work. Just the laboratory. We synthesize the product, we hand it off. We don't know anything about the people selling or buying it, we don't think about what's happening out there on the ground level, none of it matters. Cronus's network has been active for a decade, it's established, there won't be any problems with that. No turf wars, no more violence, no more hurting people, I...I think we really made it." He nodded, putting his hands on his hips, slowly looking around the laboratory. "It's just a business. Imperium for money. Just so happens to be illegal." He shrugged. "Gods, I can't believe all the mistakes we made when we started, what was I _thinking_ , putting myself so close to that kind of danger?! And...and the people I hurt on the way...the risks I took, I can't believe I let any of that happen! I never should have let myself get any more involved than this. H-hopefully, Zoisite's scheme to get that Cassandra woman out of prison works, and then...well, obviously, I'll have to live with some of the things I can't undo. But from now on, nobody gets hurt."

Kunzite nodded, holding one of the glasses up towards Endymion, picking up the second one for himself. Endymion took it, swirling it around gently and staring intently down at the red drink within.

"So, then," Endymion said quietly. "Let's say...to peaceful, lucrative, black market imperium." He raised the glass up towards Kunzite, Kunzite stuck his identical glass over towards Endymion's tapping them together, prompting both of them to slowly drink the contents.

After several beats, Endymion doing his due diligence on the complex tastes of the drink, the Prince swallowed down, processing the assorted flavors.

His mental musings were interrupted by a soft alarm sounding off from the row of ovens across the room.

"

A soft alarm sounded off from the row of ovens across the room.

"There we are," Kunzite said, swinging the large front door of the leftmost oven open. Endymion quickly reached forward with a large pair of metal tongs, big enough to grab onto both sides of the top tray, and yanked it out. Endymion easily moved the tray around as if it carried no more weight than a feather, courtesy of the anti-gravity technology the pincers had.

"So, Cronus, I wanted to say something, just in case it maybe...put some friction between us," Endymion said as he dumped the contents of the tray into a large rectangular bin right behind him. The solid sheet of synthesized imperium shattered into several pieces against the bottom of the bin with a sharp crack. The Prince quickly turned around, grabbing the next tray with the pincers and pulling it out. "So, Viluy—"

"Oh, no friction," Cronus assured him, watching as the second sheet of imperium was tossed into the large bin. "I completely understand that you two want to work in whatever environment and situation you're most comfortable in, and that even a slight deviation from ideal circumstances can cause problems. After all, I am asking an awful lot of you two."

Endymion worked quickly, having had a lot of practice in the last cycle, sending another thick sheet crashing down into the bin every handful of beats.

"I just hope she wasn't too upset about it," Endymion said. "She seemed perfectly nice, it wasn't anything personal against her."

"She'll be fine," Cronus assured him.

"So, any reason why you stopped by today?" Endymion asked, dragging the bin over a few steps so he was now in front of the second oven, beginning to repeat the process of dragging out trays. Kunzite, over on the right side of the room, began to dump imperium sheets into his own bin, doubling the number of jarring crash sounds in the room.

"Just checking in on my investment," Cronus said, a small smile on his face. "I was in the area, thought I'd stop by, since I knew you were working today. We're making a lot of money together, you and I, I'd be a fool to not make sure you're happy."

"Oh, we're happy," Endymion assured him. "Especially if that crate up on the catwalk you brought is for us."

"Ah, yes," Cronus agreed, motioning up towards the wooden box above his head. "I thought I'd bring your payment."

"The last payment was a little heavy," Endymion said conversationally. "Couple million extra in there, I think."

"Well, the last batch was a little heavy," Cronus pointed out. "I don't want to be accused of getting extra work from my employees and not compensating them."

Endymion nodded. "You might be the only person in the galaxy who thinks like that."

"So tell me," Cronus began. "Your father, do you have any concerns? Do you believe he suspects anything? I want you to feel as if you can come to me if you get the sense that he's starting to wonder about you, or me."

"Oh...I have a feeling that my father would sooner accuse every single other person in this galaxy of being involved in imperium smuggling before he'd accuse me," Endymion said. "And he's expressed nothing but admiration and appreciation for you."

"Good to hear," Cronus said.

Over the course of a few secundas, Endymion and Kunzite had deposited all of the synthesized imperium into the two bins. Both of them went to the edge of their bins and pressed a button on the lip, causing a digital readout on the side to flash up a series of digits.

"Six twenty-one point four," Endymion announced.

"Three eighty-one point nine," Kunzite followed. "That's one thousand and three point three, bringing us to a final count of five thousand and eight point one."

Cronus placed his right hand up on Endymion's left shoulder. "One cycle in, and I have to say. I think this could be an arrangement that lasts a very, very long time."

"

Princess Saturn's head snapped up as soon as she heard her bedroom door click open, immediately focusing on Cassini as he entered her dimmed private chamber. Her lead advisor was followed by two short women in modest maid outfits, one carrying a silver tray with rolled-up leaves of lettuce, the other with a similar tray that bore a few yellow pillows and a large teacup.

"Did it come?!" Saturn asked, eyes widening as she quickly scrambled to sit up on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs around from the prone position she had been in while she was by herself.

Cassini pressed his right index finger to his lips, moving to the side so the two maids could deliver their offerings to the young Princess. With an impatient pout, Saturn nevertheless understood the need for keeping matters of planetary security a secret.

"Your Highness," the first maid said quietly, setting the tray on the bed right next to her. "Lettuce wraps." She expansively gestured towards the collection of food.

She nodded, eager to be left alone with Cassini. "Thank you," she rushed out, reaching down to grab one of the rolls.

The second maid, this one a good deal shorter than the first, set her medicines out on the other side of her. She bowed as well. After taking a couple bites, she quickly picked up the teacup and one of the pills. She tossed the oval tablet into her mouth and swallowed it down with a gulp of the liquid concoction.

"I-it's okay, you two can go," she said, twisting her head back and forth to look at the two in turn. "I promise I'll finish it all, you don't have to stay."

The two middle-aged women glanced at each other, silently considering her guarantee.

"No, really, I promise," the Princess repeated. "Please, don't let me waste your time."

"I'll make sure she finishes," Cassini offered, stepping up between the two maids. With his assurance, they quickly turned and left the room, padding across the carpet and leaving the preteen girl alone with her advisor.

The moment the door across the room snapped shut, Saturn couldn't help a little grumble. "You hide _one_ pill in your bra, and they never let you live it down."

"It was definitely more than one," Cassini chided. "These pills are helping you stay alive, Your Highness. Every single person working in this palace treats you keeping up on your medication as a matter of life and death, as they should."

"But they taste bad," she said lamely.

"That wouldn't matter if you put them far enough back on your tongue," Cassini said simply. "We've been over this."

Princess Saturn relented from further childish protests, as she was far more interested in whatever information Cassini might have. She brought her legs back up onto the bed, crossing them underneath her, looking up to Cassini eagerly. "Well, what happened?"

"Finish that roll, and I'll tell you."

Saturn groaned. "Cassini, I'm not six!"

"Then prove it," he challenged.

Saturn quicky relented, shoving the last bit of the lettuce wrap into her mouth, comically consuming it as fast as she could manage.

"Anonymous donation, eight billion creds, just like ten days ago, and ten days before that," Cassini said.

"There are only a few people in the galaxy who could possibly afford to give away tens of billions of creds every cycle like this," Saturn mumbled, looking down at the carpet in front of her, face wrinkling as she was plunged into thought. "This doesn't make any sense."

"And last night, there was an implosion on Tethys, one of The Rings's missile silos. Crumbled into nothing, current theory is sabotage. They had been using that particular silo to keep us from establishing any sort of reliable presence on that moon, so it's certainly a significantly loss for them." Cassini stood up straight, putting his hands behind his back.

Saturn reached over and grabbed another one of the wraps, lifting it up to her mouth and taking a bite out of it. "It all has to be connected, right? It can't just be a coincidence."

"It is difficult to believe that we just so happen to have a mysterious billionaire benefactor and a rogue military unit coming to our aide at the same time, yes," Cassini agreed. "It's equally difficult to believe that one entity is capable of funding us _and_ providing ground support for the war at the same time, though."

She picked up another pill and the teacup, repeating the process from earlier.

"However, the influx of war funds has allowed us to overwhelm The Rings over on the Apollina Crater on the southern hemisphere, so we've managed to start pushing them back towards the Marin Trench. We can use the bottleneck to keep them from just retreating back to their territories, and actually take prisoners. Plus we were able to launch a stealth attack on a key camp on Titan, mission success." Cassini watched her finish the second lettuce wrap. "I don't want to make any promises, Your Highness, but I can honestly say that I believe the tide of this war is starting to shift in our direction. And if we continue to receive anonymous assistance from whoever out there happens to like you so much, the generals believe we could be headed towards a final resolution in three years."

"I suppose that passes for good news," Saturn said.

"It's certainly much better than the endless stalemate of the last several years," Cassini reminded her. "I can't even begin to try to explain who this mystery entity is who is trying to help us, but rest assured knowing this, Your Highness. Because of their intervention, I believe we may have finally caught something of a break."

"

Inanna held the golden data chip up in between her right hand's thumb and index finger, out towards Princess Venus, who was impassively seated in one of the chairs near the center of _The Genetrix's_ circular interior.

"Enough dirt to bury a small city," Inanna proclaimed. "Even someone as well-connected and wealthy as Solomon won't be able to hide from this."

"Makes me wonder what the law enforcement agencies of the galaxy are doing, if it was so easy for us to find all this," Venus wondered aloud.

"I have to object to the use of the word 'easy', Your Highness," Inanna said.

Venus, with a smirk, gave a little nod. "Fair enough, Inanna."

"This information has been copied into twenty different data chips, distributed all over the solar system, ready to be spread like a virus across every information network that exists. All that's left to do is make our threat."

"The other Angels are in position and can release this information at a moment's notice," Inanna added. "He's completely boxed in, he just hasn't been told yet."

"Nothing concrete about who this Tuxedo Mask individual might be yet?" Venus asked. "I haven't heard much lately about that."

"Not really, unfortunately," Inanna admitted. "He's a ghost. His product is being dealt, in bulk, on virtually every street corner across the galaxy, and nobody knows who he is. I don't understand it."

Venus took a moment to look around the mostly-empty chamber of black walls. "We need agency resources to find him. No reason to wait any longer at this point." She looked up to Inanna. "Make Solomon aware of our intentions as soon as possible. No point in waiting, the sooner we figure out the identity of Tuxedo Mask, the sooner we can fund our coup."

Inanna bowed towards her. "Will do, Your Highness."

"

Grandmaster Galen sighed heavily, hunched over slightly at the head of the long table, almost every member of the agency high council gathered before him in rows down the sides. His hands were down on the table surface, head bowed. Behind him was a large map of the galaxy, each planet and moon depicted, with glowing red dots on almost every single planet and moon, many of them hosting over a dozen such points.

"Not sure there's much of a point in even having the map up," Orion grumbled. "It's understood, the stuff is basically everywhere, we're trying to bail out a sinking yacht with a thimble."

"Maybe stay away from the sinking ship analogies," Timon protested. "Things are bad enough without exaggerating."

"Alright, we're...we're trying to push a tsunami wave back with an umbrella," Jorja suggested. "It's certainly bad, however you want to put it."

"So much for 'Tuxedo Mask' running out of product," Naxos said bitterly. "That's what I get for having a little bit of optimism."

"We've managed to seize about three libras of the product over the last cycle," Galen announced. "Well over a hundred arrests in total, not a one of them bringing enough charges for us to actually get any of these dealers to flip."

"There has to be a way to get around this!" Kasios huffed. " _We're_ the ones with jurisdiction over imperium smuggling crimes! The game has changed, this new imperium strain makes the old laws useless! We should be pushing the royal houses to adopt no-tolerance policies."

Galen's nose wrinkled. "We've been communicating with the various Kings and Queens of the galaxy about this issue, but they don't seem particularly receptive to such drastic changes."

Kasios gave a hesitant little shrug. "I mean, I hate to say it, but...desperate times being desperate times, maybe we need to press harder?"

Galen grimaced. "No other way to put it, most of these royals aren't big fans of the agency. Jupiter and Mercury in particular don't really appreciate us right now. And, even if they won't admit it, a lot of them probably have an appreciation for the black market for imperium. They're not all-in on the ideology like you, Kasios."

Kasios rolled his eyes.

"The less money people spend on imperium, the more money they spend on things where the money remains circulating on-planet, better for the economy," Galen continued. "They'll play along with us as much as they need to, but ultimately they don't _really_ want to completely end the black market."

"The galaxy is dying, and that's the garbage that's holding us back from actually conducting an effective crackdown," Kasios grumbled.

"We can't exactly fight a war against seven different planets at the same time," Galen added. "And that's effectively what it would take for us to get what we really need. Obviously, we're going to keep pushing, but it's going to be a long process before we can get anything close to what we need to significantly slow the smuggling down."

Naxos sighed heavily. "If only all royals were like you, Kasios."

"I agree," Kasios said.

"Alright. Enough about that for now. We'll keep running operations and making arrests, all we can do. Eventually, there will be a breakthrough. Maybe we'll squeeze some concessions out of some of the royal houses on law changes while we're at it, but we can't count on much." He pointed over towards the lone empty seat at the table, down near the bottom of the table on the left side. "So, I'm sure everyone's wondering where Solomon is."

Focus in the room quickly shifted over to the vacated leather seat.

"So, I got a message from him earlier today. He's having some health problems, and feels he can no longer effectively serve on this council. Effective immediately, he has resigned his post," Galen reported, slowly pivoting his head back and forth to each present council member.

"About time," Jorja muttered. "I'll sure miss all the nothing he did around here."

"Take it easy," Galen warned. "Solomon served on the high council for nearly forty years, and his connections have been valuable to us." He cleared his throat. "He has a replacement ready to be offered up for consideration, and was quite enthusiastic in his suggestion."

"Well, obviously, it's his son," Timon said dryly.

"It's not, actually," Galen corrected. "I was surprised too. But he actually recommended we bring Princess Venus on to replace him."

"Wait, what?" Orion questioned, jolted out of his mildly-depressed malaise. "Princess Venus? T-that might be even more questionable!"

"She's young and she's in a position of power outside the agency," Galen pointed out. "Plus, Venus has a strong history of co-operating with the agency, and working very hard to end imperium smuggling. We should, at the very least, consider it."

"She's never held _any_ position in the agency, official or unofficial," Orion pointed out. "I'm not sure she's ever even been on board _The Savery_. At least Solomon's son has been assisting his father with agency business for the last fifteen years in an unofficial capacity."

"If recent events have taught us anything, it's that it's very useful to have members of royalty moving in lockstep with the agency. I'm not saying we bring her on blind, but we should give her every opportunity to earn a spot on the high council. She might be a couple years away from taking the throne, let's bring her on now."

"Not like imperium laws can get any stricter on Venus," Naxos pointed out. "I mean, not to be insensitive or to paint with too broad a brush, but it has to be said that women from Venus aren't exactly known for what they have between the ears."

"We'll give her the opportunity to buck the stereotype," Galen suggested. "That's all I'm suggesting. If she's interested enough in the spot for her to contact Solomon about it, then there's probably something there beyond what you'd expect." He lightly tapped his knuckles against the table surface. "That's all for today, meeting adjourned."

"

Princess Serenity sat down on the floor of her bedroom, legs crossed underneath her, watching Chibiusa scamper around in front of her on all fours, chasing a colorful ball around. It was programmed to automatically start rolling around randomly every time she touched it, meaning that catching up to it only gave her another thing to chase after. She was having a lot of fun, fully able to entertain herself.

Which was good, as her mother currently only had a fraction of her attention on the young child. The lion's share of her focus was on what she was holding in her hands, right in front of her. She wore a conflicted scowl that spoke of the weariness in her mind as she closely examined the three page document. The very same one that Prince Endymion had given her a cycle and a half ago.

She scanned the small text along the first page, a bunch of overly-complicated language about the terms of the restraining order, taking about four hundred words to say what could have easily been said in twenty. She wasn't sure what she expected to read this time that she hadn't already read a dozen times before.

She flipped up the bottom right corner of the page, turning it over to the third and last one. Lines along the bottom for signatures. Prince Endymion's on the left. But the line on the right, waiting for her to fill it out, still absent any of her penmarks, rendering the restraining order completely irrelevant without someone who actually wanted to keep the offender away.

She sighed, lolling her head backwards, looking up at the ceiling, then giving a frustrated grunt. With a snap, she slapped the documents on the floor to her left. After contemplating the ceiling for several beats, she looked back over at the papers.

Her turmoil was temporarily interrupted when Chibiusa crawled over, grabbing onto Serenity's right knee and trying to climb into her lap.

"O-oh, hi!" she said awkwardly, so lost in her muddled thoughts she struggled to come up with a good welcome to her daughter. She helped the toddler into her lap, rubbing her little shoulders, but before long, her gaze was pulled back to the documents next to her.


	32. Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 32: Forbidden Fruit

Serenity glared hard down at the patterns of her bed quilt, eyes tracing the soft pink lines running down the fabric. Within a matter of a few beats, she could feel her eyeballs getting pulled over to her right, down on top of the quilt right next to her. The documents were sitting there, laying flat atop her bed, still refusing to change no matter how many times she examined them.

She felt like she was changing her mind a hundred times a day, and having nobody she could discuss this issue with was making it drag out even longer. Every time she got close to putting pen to paper, the gravity of the effects the document would have would bore down on her, forcing her to put it off yet again. And the further she would get from it, the more she thought about all the lies and deception, not to mention the criminal activity, that her husband had been involved in lately, and how good it would feel to be separated from all of that forever.

She gave a soft little grunt, putting her hands back behind her to prop herself up a bit as she leaned back. It was amazing how tense she felt given that her surroundings were so benign and peaceful. Her large, luxurious bedroom was silent and mostly empty, the barely-audible breathing of the sleeping Chibiusa in the crib towards the back right corner of the room providing the only thing even approaching a disturbance.

She threw a side glance over towards the door to her right, and then scooted off the bed towards it. Scrambling over, as if in a hurry, she went over to the locking mechanism along the right side of the door and engaged it, hearing the faint tap of the bolts clicking into place. With the room now secured, she turned around and found the walk-in closet door over towards the right.

"

Running the pad of her right thumb over the black sensor housed in the rightmost wall, Serenity threw a glance to her right, out towards the primary chamber of her bedroom. A panel on the wall slid to the left, revealing a little numeric keypad. Absentmindedly, she pressed her index finger lightly into the keypad a few times. To her left, a large rectangular-shaped segment of the wall recessed a finger-length or so, then slid to the left. A massive door made of shiny steel was revealed, a white round wheel right in the middle of it. She went over to it and grabbed the wheel, spinning it to the left as hard as she could, getting it to complete several rotations. The giant silver door unlocked and swung open on it's hinges, revealing a cold, dark chamber with a couple heavily-jeweled dresses hanging on a hook on the left wall, some small brown boxes against the back, and a luggage container on the floor right in front of her.

She stared down at this particular item for some time, ignoring the musty air that flooded out of the safe room, washing over her with a mildly pungent scent. She stepped forward, then dropped to her knees right before the case.

Pressing her thumbs into the top of the edge of the container, the lid popped up. She tossed it up, setting her sights down on the valuable contents.

An ocean of gemstones, filling almost the entire interior of the case. A single handful would be enough to forever change the life of over ninety-nine percent of the galaxy's populace. Even to someone like her, the billions of creds in jewels before her carried some weight.

She propped her right palm up underneath her chin, looking down at the gemstones with her large, round eyes. Slowly, her left hand reached out towards the diamonds, sticking her pale, slender fingers into the riches and gently sifting through.

Her lip curled downward a bit as she felt the slightly cool and prickly sensation on her fingers, the precious stones shifting around her digits.

As if suddenly scalded by the contents of the bag, she whipped her hand out suddenly, withdrawing it back into her lap and pressing it down between the folds of her clothing. A tiny grunt bubbled out of her throat. She slowly closed her eyes, taking in a massive breath, then slowly letting it out.

Before long, the intoxicating twinkle of the thousands of pink diamonds drew her back in, forcing her to look back down and get lost in the overwhelming majesty of it all.

She probably would have knelt there for quite some time, if not for the squishing sound she was just barely able to detect from her bedroom. Twisting herself around so she was looking out of the safe door, she held her breath for a moment and focused intently on listening. Soon, she heard the same sound. She had heard that noise more than enough times over the last several cycles to recognize it as the mattress in Chibiusa's crib being compressed, no doubt thanks to the energetic toddler having woken up and moving about on top of it.

Quickly, she got to her feet, the thought of tending to her child enough to make her momentarily forget about the ten figure treasure in front of her. In a matter of beats she was back out into her room, striding to the crib. Sure enough, the young child was quickly growing restless within the small enclosure, scrambling around on all fours like a caged lion atop the mattress. She bent down over the side of the crib, grabbing her by the sides and gently picking her up.

Cradling her in her slender arms, Serenity looked down at her daughter. Of course, with half of her coming from her estranged husband, Serenity couldn't help but think about him when looking at her. And just like that, she was back in the hole, thoughts fixated on Prince Endymion, the pink diamonds in her closet safe, the restraining order documents on her bed, the mountain of illegal activity her husband had been involved in under her nose in recent cycles, the Kingdom merger…

She slowly bent down, setting Chibiusa down on the carpeted floor, keeping the minimal amount of focus on her quickly scurrying off.

"

Prince Endymion stirred underneath his bed sheets as the sound of his bedroom door swinging open broke his slumber. Knowing that only a handful of people had authorization to unlock his door from the outside, he made a narrow range of assumptions of who it could be.

"O-oh, you're still asleep?"

That question, coupled with that high-pitched feminine voice, smashed Endymion's assumptions into pieces. His wakeup procedure, initially planned to be a slow and gentle one, shifted into gear, and he reflexively tried to untangle himself from his sheets at record speed. His frantic movements, however, served only to cause him to smash the top of his head into the headboard with a loud smack.

"AHH!" he yelped, pain immediately occupying all of his senses, tears filling his eyes. He rolled over just enough to make out Princess Serenity, standing in the threshold of his bedroom door. Even through his blurry vision, her distinctive hairstyle was unmistakable. He was also able to ascertain that she had Chibiusa strapped to a harness on her chest. He saw Serenity plug her fingers into Chibiusa's ears, and then the pain in his head blossomed to the point where he couldn't even keep his eyes open. He rolled back over, buried his face into his pillow, and let loose with a string of muffled profanities.

Serenity stared at her husband with wide eyes for a beat, mouth dropping open in shock and concern. "Oh my God, are you okay?!" she gasped.

With a groan, Endymion rotated his head slightly over towards her. "No!" he moaned, before again shoving his face into the cushion to continue the cathartic swearing.

"H-hold on!" Serenity said, speeding over towards the liquor cabinet and bar over on the left side of the room, moving as fast as she could without jostling Chibiusa. As Endymion gradually shifted from obscenities to mournful moans and groans, she quickly laid out a cloth napkin and placed several square ice cubes on it, before bundling it into a little ball.

"Ahhhhh..." Endymion grunted, the pain still overruling the shock of seeing his wife show up in his room out of nowhere, although the dual emotions were quickly pulling even. Serenity quickly went up to his prone figure and gently placed the bundle of ice against the top of his head. He gave a little hiss at the cold sensation initially, but after a moment, was able to slowly relax, and could feel the agony cascading through his nerves from the top of his head start to subside.

"Be careful!" Serenity chided, pressing the ice down through his thick black hair. "I'm surprised you didn't crack your head open!"

"Uh-huh," he groaned aimlessly, face flushed red and eyes still blurry. Slowly, he rotated his head to his right, looking up towards his wife, who looked oddly concerned and sympathetic to his pain, despite supposedly hating him.

"Should I call the doctor? You might have...uh, uh, a concussion," she asked. "I think I should call Dennis."

He wanted to dismiss and decline the offer, and reflexively started to put his right hand out towards her, but the bubbling pain still emanating from the point of contact with his headboard, plus the foggy dullness of his mind right now, convinced him to listlessly nod his head.

"

"I think you'll be fine, Your Highness," Dennis said, placing the square scanner back into his inside jacket pocket, giving Serenity a suspicious look out of the corner of his eyes. "Those pills should help with any possible symptoms. I'm still just a little confused on the how of it."

"N-night terrors," Endymion muttered. "I don't want to talk about it. I was...I was thrashing around in my sleep, bad dream, you know. Just...jerked my head into the board, that's all."

"Is that common?" Dennis asked, standing back up at the side of the bed. "We could look into getting the headboard cushioned if this is something that happens a lot."

"No, no! It's fine," Endymion protested. "Uh, thank you, you're dismissed," he said, gesturing over towards his bedroom door. "I'll...if it happens again, you'll be...be the first to know."

Dennis took a little longer than necessary to give the Prince an odd stare, but eventually nodded back. "Just try to take it easy for today. And maybe make sure to stay awake for awhile, just in case."

He departed the room with that final recommendation, leaving the couple alone with their young child. The moment the door shut behind him, Endymion slowly rotated his head about to look at Serenity. She was unlatching Chibiusa off the chest harness, setting her down on top of the bed.

"U-uh, Serenity...what are you doing here?" Endymion asked, watching as Chibiusa used her newfound freedom to crawl up towards him. "What's going on?"

"Oh, well…" Serenity thought for a moment. "I thought about what you said, and I think you're right."

Endymion's gaze narrowed ever-so-slightly. "W-what did I say? What am I right about?"

"Well, s-she's your daughter too!" Serenity pointed up towards Chibiusa, which prompted Endymion to reach forward and scoop her up into his hands. She gave an energetic squeal on being swept up into the air. "You were right, maybe...maybe there are things going on between you and me, but whatever might be going on there...you should be allowed to see your daughter too. You should be a part of her life."

Endymion still didn't look particularly less confused.

"Remember? You asked me to let you see her sometimes," Serenity said. "Did you really hit your head that hard?"

"No, no, I remember saying that," Endymion replied. "I...I just…I didn't think that...I mean…I wasn't expecting…"

With some effort, he managed to swallow the second half of that statement, turning his focus towards the toddler in his hands.

"...well, nevermind, then," he muttered.

"So, I thought I'd bring her by, um...maybe we can work out some sort of schedule for recurring visits." She got up on the bed, sitting down near the bottom corner with her legs crossed underneath her. "She's rested, so she's got plenty of energy right now. Um, she'll be ready to eat in like two minutas." She leaned over and pointed down at the floor by the door. "I brought some toys, over there. I'll just sit here and read."

"...okay…" he said uneasily, afraid to press any further no matter how confused he was. His wife seemed rather cheerful and at-ease, being around him, and he was afraid reminding her of the way things were when they left off would somehow ruin everything. While that mindset wasn't giving her intelligence level very much credit, it was enough to get him to hold his tongue.

He lifted Chibiusa up high into the air above her head, getting her to squeal in delight and throw her arms and legs about. He managed to summon up an awkward smile at his child, but quickly had his gaze drawn back towards Serenity, who was now holding a tablet up in front of her face.

"

"It's a little out of balance, it's too acidic," Kunzite said, staring at a tiny strip of paper pinched between his fingers, the tip of it turning a bright yellow. "Rebalance it, we need more powder."

Endymion picked up a green can from the counter in front of him, then walked it over to the long, narrow trough filled with a clear liquid that extended across a good part of the room. He twisted the top of the can, then began to sprinkle a white powder into the liquid.

"Not a lot, it's only a little off," Kunzite said. After a couple of emphatic shakes of the can, Endymion flipped a switch on the outside lip of the trough. The liquid within began to gentle froth around, stirring around to even the contents out across the entire trough.

The Earth Prince pushed the breathing mask up to his forehead, uncovering his face, turning to look over at Kunzite. "So, what do I do?"

"Give it a couple secundas and let me retest it," Kunzite said absentmindedly, reaching into a drawer underneath the trough and pulling out another small strip of paper.

"No, no, I mean, Serenity," Endymion said. "I didn't want to...you know, ruin it by saying something, so I just kind of kept quiet. But she actually seemed pretty happy! I definitely haven't said anything to her since I dropped her off on the Moon, and...I made one little comment about maybe wanting to get to see Chibiusa every now and then, but I certainly wasn't expecting _her_ to come along." He shrugged. "I would have been happy with one of the midwives passing her along, would have been thrilled if Serenity just stopped by to drop her off, but she sat there the whole time reading!"

Kunzite, eyes still trained down on the frothing trough, took a moment to digest Endymion's frantic diatribe. "Well, it was two cycles ago that you let her move back to the Moon. That's a lot of time for someone to calm down and look at the bigger picture. Maybe it's just that simple."

"We...we're not supposed to be in the same room as each other," Endymion continued. "And she knows that, she has to know that."

"Well. You did say you wanted to be able to see your daughter sometimes and be part of her life, right?" Kunzite dipped the tip of the little scrap of paper into the trough of liquid. "Just appreciate the fact that you're getting that and don't ask too many questions for now."

Endymion gave a listless little nod as Kunzite held the slip of paper up in front of his eyes.

"

"So, obviously, everything got cleared out," Kasios said, stepping into the entirely plain and almost bare office room, little more than a decently-sized chamber of white walls and a tanned tile floor. "You'll have complete freedom to set it up and organize it however you want, of course. I doubt you and Solomon have much overlap in tastes, so I imagine it'll be quite unrecognizable."

Princess Venus casually strolled in, wearing her very best dress gown, looking around the plain room. "I'll get right on that, Your Highness."

"Oh, don't even start with that. It's taken me this long to get the other council members to stop calling me that when I'm up here, I'm certainly not taking it from a fellow royal," Kasios said, turning to look at the young woman behind him. "I'm just another council member when I'm on _The Savery._ "

"You're the most powerful person in the galaxy, I think a little bit of respect is mandatory no matter who I am," Venus protested.

"That's debatable," he countered. "And not a debate I care to have right now. But my name is Kasios, and I want to be called that when I'm up here." He put his hands on his hips. "So, you're the junior council member, which means you don't have to feel too pressured to start contributing right away. It'll take a couple cycles for you to get up to speed. And I can tell you from personal experience, it's understood that you have other things going on in your life that preclude your ability to invest all of your time on agency work."

"Sounds like it doesn't stop you," Venus pointed out. "Everything I've ever heard indicates you're one of the most active members of the council."

"Maybe, but my point is...we understand." He glanced over towards her. "Oh, and, not that I have the willpower to tell you to stop, but I should point that if you make a habit of wearing things like _that_ when you're here, nobody is going to be able to get any work done."

Venus gave a playful little grin, absentmindedly tugging at the collar of her gown. "Well, I don't exactly have any clothes that _don't_ make me look like the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, so I don't know what to tell you."

Kasios, with a smirk, nodded. "That's a good point. Maybe just wear a lot of layers? You can turn the heat all the way down in your office."

"Oooh, I don't know if that's me," Venus said, stretching her arms up above her head.

"I have to say, I never expected you to actually _want_ to do something like this. I don't know if you really noticed or not, but you don't really have very much in common with anyone else on the council." He slipped his hands into the pockets on the sides of his tunic. "I understand you had to go over this a lot during the interviews, I don't want to keep pestering you with the same line of questioning, but it's definitely not what anyone expected."

"Well, there's a lot about me that people don't know about," Venus said. "Same goes for most Venusians. That's just...how we live."

He nodded. "Right, then. So anyway, this room is yours to arrange however you want. We'll get you an official agency communicator, it's going to be filled with contacts. I'd recommend getting familiar with those contacts. They're businessmen, governors, philanthropists, all sorts of people who have money or power and have supported our efforts across the galaxy. What we do here is expensive, and even with the money we making selling imperium, we still need help from as many outside people as possible."

"So just get them to like me?" Venus asked, going over towards the back of the room, where she imagined a desk might be. "I'm pretty good at that sort of thing."

"That'd be a good start," Kasios replied. "Also, you're probably aware, but you are sort of coming in right when we're in the middle of the most dangerous imperium smuggling operation in recorded history. So right now, everyone has a little less downtime than usual, so if people seem to be a little short with you, or aren't giving you very much time for questions, it's not because they don't like you."

"I understand," Venus said. "Truth be told, I'm actually really excited to try to get involved in that investigation. I mean, something like that, that's the kind of thing you join the agency for, to stop things like that."

"Well, you'll have full access to all the files from the case," Kasios said. "Do as much as you can on your own, and the other council members will do their best to assist. Just try to understand that we're in the middle of a particularly sensitive time right now."

She nodded. "Of course. Thank you so much for introducing me to my office."

"Given we're both royalty, Grandmaster Galen thought we might have more of a connection than you with anyone else on the council, so he wanted me to be the one showing you around," Kasios said. "Alright, hopefully that's enough to get you started. I have to get back. There's a lot going on right now."

She bowed her head slightly towards Kasios. "See you around, High King Kasios. I'm looking forward to finding ways to contribute to the agency's cause."

Kasios smiled over at the young woman, and then quickly swept around to depart the room.

"

Princess Serenity slowly turned the thick cardboard page of the book, allowing the complex, fancy diorama within to extend and expand out. Chibiusa watched as the three-dimensional palace took form in front of her, and as the book was splayed out flat on the bed, it became more and more clear that the diorama was meant to depict the Moon Palace.

"Ten thousand workers spend two years building the palace, every single day asking the Queen about her vision. They wanted it to match her vision exactly, and be exactly the way the Queen wanted it. Although they could have used Carnelian Crystal to build it in a few days, the Queen's vision included dozens of different materials, and so it had to be built manually."

Serenity couldn't help but feel a little silly, knowing that despite her fast development, Chibiusa was still not cognizant enough to really absorb anything she was saying. But she knew that her mother had done the same with her, and her mother's mother with her mother, and on into infinity, and who was she to break tradition?

Chibiusa reached forward towards the cardboard palace, stubby fingers grabbing at the dome on the top.

"After the palace was completed, there was a great celebration that lasted two cycles. Every single member of the other royal families of the galaxy came to see it. It was immediately recognized as the most impressive structure in the entire galaxy by all. In the face of such a wonder, the Moon's status was solidified. No Kingdom was more respected or revered than that of the Moon. Over the next decade, the Moon Palace became the host to countless priceless pieces of art and ancient, rare artifacts. Every sculptor and painter dreamed of having one of their works displayed within the palace. It was over a thousand years before a more respected palace was built."

She reached forward and rubbed Chibusa's back as the child continued to run her tiny hands over the palace depiction.

"That palace still stands today. We're inside it right now, in fact," Serenity continued. "Even thousands of years later, unchanged and unaltered. And it will stand for thousands of years more." Serenity watched Chibiusa grab at the base of the book, pushing it around, clearly intrigued by the sight of a massive complex structure seemingly popping up from the pages.

Serenity sighed, looking down at the diorama.

"And that's the story of the Moon Palace." She gently stroked her fingers on top of Chibiusa's head. "One day, it'll be mine. And then, one day after that, it'll be yours. Just, um...just one of the amazing wonders that is your birthright."

She reached forward, turning the page in the simple picture book, over to another diorama of a tall, thin tower. While not nearly as complex or stylised as the palace, it was still clearly meant to depict an elaborate and weighty monument.

"Like, uh...well, this...this one isn't around anymore," she mumbled to herself. "Mm. I don't think I inherited my mother's storytelling skills." She watched Chibiusa lunge forward to wrap her tiny hands around the tower. She bent it over a bit towards her. "But, um...The Vingian Crystal Tower stood for nearly fifteen hundred years, and people from all across the galaxy came to it to feel closer to the Goddess Luna. Back then, the Moon was so well-respected by the populace of the galaxy, that Luna was one of the most worshipped Goddesses despite being considered the Goddess of the Moon." She paused for a bit. "Now, uh...today, that's not...really the case. And the tower, um…" She winced down hard. "They disassembled it for materials since...well, it wasn't being used very much anymore."

She was starting to be glad that Chibiusa wasn't going to understand or remember much of anything she said to her right now. She wanted to be a little more colorful and positive, but given her current situation, reality kept intruding on the exaggerated historical she wanted to be giving her daughter.

"But, obviously, it's a huge part of our history," she said hurriedly. Just then, a dull little rip sounded off as Chibiusa tore the tower right out of the book, reducing it to a little stub. Chibiusa took the cardboard piece and pulled it over towards her mouth. Soon enough, she had inserted the top of the tower in, biting down on it with a set of baby teeth that weren't quite able to do much damage yet.

Serenity reached forward, gently grabbing on the tower and pulling it from her mouth and hands. She held the destroyed piece of cardboard art up in front of her, gaze flickering back and forth between it and the remaining base still in the book.

"Pretty much," she admitted, tossing the ruined tower over her shoulder absentmindedly.

"

"A Whole New World is now the fourth-largest bookstore chain on Earth," Zoisite explained. "Thirty-eight locations, with forty by the end of the cycle. Four locations are of the deluxe variety, much larger than the others, and—"

"Zoisite, you...I know you're proud, and it's definitely amazing what you've managed to do in such a short period of time, but you don't have to give the official summary every time," Endymion said, waving his hand over towards his youngest general. "Just bottom line it for me."

"Sorry, Your Highness," Zoisite said. "In any case, two million creds were washed through the business in the last cycle. I think that number could go up to about two and a half for the next cycle."

Endymion, seated in a high-backed chair against the left wall of Zoisite's chambers, wrinkled his face a bit. "It's really fantastic work, of course, Zoisite. But, I just can't help but think, with the amount of money we're making every cycle. We're just not getting anywhere."

"I'm certainly aware of that," Zoisite agreed. "We may want to consider expanding our business operations. Not just vertically, either."

"You mean, acquire another business," Kunzite chimed in from the couch in the center of the room. "Are you sure you can handle that?"

"Oh, business is easy," Zoisite said quickly. "Truthfully, I never really understood why people had so much trouble with it, but now that I'm actually running a company first-hand, I really don't understand why there are so many failures. Easiest thing in the world as long as you have enough capital backing you up."

"And a bottomless supply of money to launder to bolster profits with," Nephrite added, drawing a quick glance from Zoisite. "Maybe don't forget that."

"Had I not been offered a position in the palace as Endymion's general, I think I could have taken over the Earth through business," Zoisite said lightly. Nephrite just rolled his eyes.

"In any case, Zoisite, given that A Whole New World is now firmly rooted as an overwhelming success, perhaps we should start looking into that now," Kunzite suggested.

"With your permission, Your Highness, I'd like to put together some proposals on purchasing other small businesses with the profits from the bookshop chain," Zoisite suggested. "Until such a time as you take the crown and I gain control over the treasury, this is all we can do. I know it seems like a drop in the ocean."

"No, no, you're doing wonderful, and yes, feel free to look into other opportunities—" Endymion paused, looking down towards his left hip. Quickly, he ripped the communicator off his belt and held it up in front of his face. "Oh, sorry, I actually have to run!" He jumped to his feet, quickly taking a couple steps over towards Zoisite and giving him a shoulder pat that straddled the line between affectionate and condescending. "Serenity just got here!"

Without adding any context, he spun around and ran off, not giving Zoisite time to ask for some sort of context. He raced from the chamber, speeding out the door, Zoisite shocked into silence until after he was out of sight.

"Hm," he muttered, looking over to Kunzite for some form of guidance. "Um, Kunzite, which...which Serenity is he talking about?"

Kunzite pursed his lips, giving a knowing nod and shrug. "Well, not to overstate things, but...it's possible that these problems are going to work themselves out."

"

Endymion, bent over at the waist, was holding Chibiusa's tiny wrists in his hands, up above her head. She was standing, helped tremendously in this endeavor by her father holding her up.

"Alright, here we go!" Endymion said, trying to gently urge her forward. With an adorable look of determination on her face, she started to put her right leg out in front of her. Endymion helped lean her forward, and with some effort, she managed to take a little step.

"You should see her trying to do it by herself lately," Serenity said, watching from the foot of the bed. "She's just so tired of going everywhere on all fours, she keeps trying to stand and...it's really amazing. You can tell, she wants to walk.

Chibiusa continued to confirm her mother's statements by taking a series of assisted steps across the room, Endymion shuffling along to keep right behind her and keep her upright.

"Is she talking yet?" Endymion asked.

"No, we're...we're not quite there yet, but I'm sure it's right after she figures out this walking thing," Serenity said, grinning as Endymion bent down to grab Chibiusa by the sides and lift her up into the air.

"I just can't believe how much energy she has," Endymion marveled, bringing her over to Serenity while taking her in closer to his chest so he could kiss the top of her head. "That was amazing, sweetie!"

"She is," Serenity agreed. As Endymion set the toddler down on the bed next to Serenity, she cleared her throat. "I've been, uh...been reading her stories. So when she does start speaking, she might have a lot to say."

The Prince of Earth crouched down a bit to get his face down on the same level as Chibiusa's. Serenity just watched, unable to remove the tiny smile from her face. It wasn't until Endymion glanced up to look directly at her that the moment was cracked a bit, and their eyes meeting suddenly resurfaced the reality of their awkward situation.

"Right," Serenity said uneasily. "So, I should probably get back." She scooted herself off the bed, rolling to her feet, and moving over to grab Chibiusa. Endymion stood up.

"Um...alright," he said, absolutely dying to ask more questions but still unwilling to take the risk. "Good...good seeing you." He awkwardly waved at her.

"Four days?" she asked. "Can I come by again in four days, maybe?"

"Yes, yes, that's...that works fine with me." Endymion nodded. "You're doing an amazing job as a mother, Serenity. Really. I can tell, every time I see her."

She carried Chibiusa over to the baby carrier set by the wall next to the bedroom door, kneeling down before it to carefully place her within the cushioned confines.

"You're...you're a good father, too," she said quietly, turning around to look over at him. "I can definitely tell that." She stood up, the carrier starting to levitate at her side. "See you soon."

"

Serenity held the three-page collection of documents in her right hand in front of her, casting them an impassive look. Sitting at the chair next to her desk against the near wall, just to the left of the bed, she took a brief moment to look over towards the crib in the back right corner. Chibiusa was sleeping in there, recharging her batteries. With that final push, she swallowed down hard, then picked the tube-shaped lighter sitting on the desk up in her left hand.

With a simple flick of her thumb, a tiny little flame jumped from the top of the tube, and she began slowly running it along the bottom edge of the documents. Quickly, the three sheets of paper caught fire, the heated flames expanding up the pages and needing practically no time at all to reduce them to unreadable black chunks of char.

Satisfied, she dropped the collection of documents into the black, round, empty trash can at her feet before the flames could approach her fingers. The fire continued to flail around just above the rim of the can, consuming the papers. She extinguished the lighter in her hand and set it back down just as the fire began to wane, retreating into little more than a few heated embers and tiny flames that lingered. The forms were now nothing but an ugly black clump, shriveled and unsalvageable by even the most cutting-edge of technology. She then picked up a glass of water from next to the lighter and dumped it into the can, the reaction causing a satisfying little hiss as the last of the heat was put out, as well as a bit of steam.

That steam, as well as the smoke, was rapidly being sucked out of the room by the filtration system, leaving minimal evidence that the document had ever existed at all, or been destroyed. Serenity pushed the can back underneath her desk with her foot, stomach in knots after finally making a solid commitment. Despite the weight of her decision certainly pulling down on her, she felt confident and good about her decision.

She got to her feet, preparing herself to tend to her nightly routine, now starting to feel the weight of her decision lessen, having finally made it.


	33. Predators

Chapter 33: Predators

"I have often said, in my life, that nothing is more important than building and improving your community," Cronus said, voice projecting clearly across the massive auditorium. The giant round room had been organized into a series of round, sheet-covered tables, with each one playing host to anywhere from one to four people. Although there were partially-eaten plates of food in front of each of them, their focus was currently up towards the front of the room, at the dais, from which Cronus was addressing them. "Be it on your block, your city, your province, your continent, your planet, or perhaps the entire galaxy, whatever scale you are capable of affecting change on, it's your job as a person to find a way to affect that change."

Prince Endymion was seated near the very front, just a handful of steps from the dais, seated next to his father and Kunzite. A quick glance to either side allowed Endymion to quickly scan all the other members of the agency high council, seated in groups around the tables closest to the dais.

"Every single person in attendance today is affecting that change. And you are doing it on the largest scale possible, in the most important area. This concerns the lives of our children and grandchildren. What we do, right now, determines whether future generations will thrive as masters of the universe, or fade into a dark age that we might never rise from."

Behind Endymion, filling the auditorium, were a slew of successful businessmen, entrepreneurs, merchants, and assorted other wealthy individuals. All of them had paid fifty thousand creds a seat to be here, and although the food was certainly top of the line, a vast majority of that fee was obviously meant to be a donation to the agency. To be present at one of Cronus's charity fundraisers carried great value just by getting the opportunity to be around and meet so many wealthy individuals, so there was never any shortage of people wishing to participate.

"Your generous contributions to the agency help move them one step closer towards bringing imperium smugglers and black market chemists to justice. Every cred counts in this fight. Make no mistake, we are mere decades away from making contact with planets beyond our solar system, opening up an entire universe of possibility and opportunity. But, at the same time, we are mere decades away from draining our galaxy of imperium, which fuels our ability to reach for such ambitious goals. For the future of our civilization, for the good of everything that has been built over these last three thousand years, we must achieve the former before the latter happens. And your contributions tonight, as well as the future ones I anticipate you all to make, help ensure that. Thank you."

A controlled, professional, yet clearly enthused round of applause followed this final declaration. It was enough to break the uptight, straight-laced event just a little bit. Amid the cacophony, Endymion couldn't help but give Cronus a look of appreciation, able to fully grasp both his oratory talents as well as his double-life deception. Endymion had great experience with both, but he could not help but feel that he had much to learn to get to where Cronus was.

"The auction will now commence," Cronus announced, waving over to his left. "All proceeds go to the agency, all bids are binding, and all sales are final." He stepped off the dais over to his right.

"I really don't know where we'd be as an organization without Cronus," Kasios said under his breath, leaning over towards his son. "Most businessmen aren't exactly a fan of governmental oversight and regulation. Like half the people in this room are only here because of his persuasion."

Endymion looked to his left, at one of the neighboring tables, easily finding the sight that stuck out like a sore thumb in the front row. Princess Venus stood out in just about any crowd, with her galaxy-renowned beauty, but surrounded by largely older and unremarkable-looking men, it was hard to not find your gaze constantly pulled in her direction.

"Is this some sort of publicity stunt?" Endymion asked. "Are you guys trying to...appeal to the younger generation?"

"She's not nearly as unintelligent as you would assume, looking at her," Kasios muttered quietly. "I had the same reservations you did, but she came highly recommended and was able to pass our litmus tests for knowledge. And remember, Venus is known for their genius battle strategists. Not all just pretty faces."

Cronus came over to their table as a bald, stocky man began to set himself up on the dais. "Good to see you taking an interest in your father's work as well, Your Highness," he said, looking over towards Endymion.

"I told him he had to come or no dessert for a cycle," Kasios said dryly.

Cronus turned his focus over to the High King. "Your son is a natural in the lab. He'll have a diamond certification in less than a year at this rate. I just wish he'd come work for me after he's done, alas, not meant to be."

"Doesn't surprise me," Kasios replied. "I'm just glad he has the opportunity to do this before he takes the throne. Thank you again for facilitating it, Cronus."

"Great to see you," Endymion said, leaning up towards Kasios to be heard over the sound of the auctioneer announcing bids on a specially crafted harp made of solid gold. "Stop by the lab sometime soon."

"I'll make time for it," Cronus agreed. "Enjoy your evening." With that, he walked off.

"Learn everything you can from him," Kasios muttered. "He's a once-in-a-generation mind."

"Oh, I know first-hand," Endymion replied, glancing back up to the dais. A couple of large men wearing blue security uniforms were carrying a small golden orb up to the auctioneer.

"Next up, we have a very special brooch, forged and set by Arche of Jupiter himself. Made of solid gold, with four bold, beautiful gemstones set around it. Handcrafted, one-of-a-kind." The auctioneer glanced down at a small pad of paper in his right hand. "Starting this one at fifty thousand creds."

"Oooh," Endymion said, reaching underneath the tablecloth and pulling out a black paddle with the number 4 printed on it in big bold red font.

"You know you could get one just like it for free," Kunzite muttered, leaning over a bit towards his charge. "One phone call to Arche and he'll be falling all over himself to make something for you."

"Yes, but it's for charity," Endymion said. He raised the paddle up high into the air, getting it to automatically start flashing, drawing the attention of the auctioneer.

"Doesn't really seem to be your style," Kasios commented.

"Maybe, but I know someone who it suits," Endymion replied.

"Ah." Kasios gave a thin smile. "So, speaking of which. What's going on there, exactly? I've been told she's been around the palace lately. Please, tell me things are getting better."

"Well, they are," Endymion admitted tersely. "As for what's going on exactly, I'm...well, still trying to figure that out myself." He raised the paddle up into the air above his head again.

"

Chibiusa, tightly wrapped up in a thin little blanket, rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, settling herself down onto the soft, pliable mattress that made up most of Prince Endymion's bed. Endymion gently stroked his fingers along her back as she settled down.

"It takes a lot to get her settled down. The midwives all keep telling me she has more energy than any child her age that they've ever seen," Serenity said.

Endymion nodded, straightening up. With his daughter going to sleep, the content smile on his face faded, and his gaze flipped over to his wife. She was seated on the bottom left corner of the bed, watching Chibiusa fall asleep.

"She really does brighten up when she sees you," Serenity said wistfully.

"Um, hey, so...I got you something!" Endymion said, gingerly walking over to the bedside table and grabbing a small blue box. "I was at an event the other night, and...well, I saw something I thought you might like."

As Endymion brought the box over, Serenity's face hardened a bit, Chibiusa no longer acting as a buffer between the couple that allowed them to have pleasant, drama-free interactions. She, of course, recognized the type of box he was bringing over as typically being used for carrying jewelry, and was immediately conflicted even before laying eyes on what the Earth Prince had for her.

He stopped in front of her, holding the box out towards her and slowly pulling back on the lid. The golden brooch was revealed, the modestly-sized piece of jewelry glinting in the light. She blinked down at it for a moment.

"I, uh, I thought you might like it, seemed like something that would look good on you," Endymion stuttered nervously. He seemed to grow more concerned with each second that Serenity didn't offer a reaction to the gift. "I mean, this would definitely look amazing on...um, on your white dresses and stuff."

"It's very nice looking," Serenity admitted, giving it a curt nod.

"I thought so too," Endymion said hopefully. "So, uh...do you...do you want it?"

Serenity pursed her lips. "I'm thinking about it."

Endymion gave a frustrated little murmur, closing the box and setting it down on the bed next to Serenity. "Alright, um...Serenity. At the risk of ruining whatever this is, I don't think I can just keep going on blind anymore. I...I need to...w-what are you doing here?"

Serenity, after a moment's pause, looked over her shoulder at Chibiusa's sleeping form. "I thought I already said. I want you to have the opportunity to be a part of her life. You asked for that."

"Yes, yes, I...but why are _you_ here?" Endymion inquired, scratching the side of his head, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Serenity. "I...there are certainly ways for me to see our daughter sometimes without you having to be here, and...correct me if I'm wrong, Serenity, but...you don't want to be here, do you? I just...I don't understand it."

She looked over at him, a mysterious little smile on her face. "Do you not want me to be here?"

"Oh, n-no, not that, not at all," Endymion said quickly. "Of course that's not it, but...I don't understand. You wanted out, you...you did everything you could to get out. You…" he winced down hard, turning away from her. "You slept with...you slept with... _someone_ in order to get out. And I let you out, and now, here you are, and I just can't make sense of it!" He shook his head. "Technically, you're not even supposed to be here, it's a violation of the...the restraining order."

She leaned back on the bed, using her arms to prop herself up.

"Well, it's a bit of an...odd situation, what with you coming to my room and all, but...we're not supposed to be anywhere near this close to each other," Endymion continued.

"I never filed that," Serenity said suddenly, leaning forward again, eyes seemingly lighting up as she looked over at Endymion.

The Earth Prince was quickly silenced by that proclamation, slowly turning towards her, a bewildered look on his face.

"Threw it away, actually," Serenity added. "Burned it, just...just in case. Didn't want anyone finding it."

Endymion blinked, looking rather dumb for a few beats. "...S...Serenity, w-why? Why would you do that?" His eyelids flickered up and down rapidly, as if he was dazed.

"I don't think it's going to work," Serenity said. "It's...it's not a story people are going to buy."

Endymion's cheek twitched slightly. "S-Serenity, I...I already said. We'd find a way. I'm willing to do or say whatever it takes to sell it. Better that than you forcing yourself to be around me when you don't want to be."

"I don't think so," Serenity said softly. "Both our parents know. We've been crazy about each other for years, in love as much as any couple has ever been in love. And suddenly, just out of nowhere, I hate you so much I don't even want you within a hundred paces of me?" She shook her head. "My mother would chase me around for the rest of her life until she knew what happened. And your father? You really think he'd just shrug his shoulders and be okay with something that significant happening in his palace?"

"We are adults, Serenity. Both of us," Endymion reminded her, crossing his left leg over his right.

"Endymion, if you get caught, if your crimes get exposed...I lose everything. If we remain separated, and I file that order, our parents _will_ dig around until they figure out what's going on. I can't take that risk any more than you can. So...I just think that our best move is to, gradually, start to make amends, spend some time around each other, and...eventually, piece this back together."

Endymion ran his hand over his mouth, running it over his chin. "Um, Serenity...there's more going on here than...than you know about." He looked rather hesitant, glancing away from her. "Serenity, one of the reasons why I...why I helped you move out was...well, there's no easy way to say this." He turned back to her, leaning in close. "I'm back in the business. My involvement in criminal activity is...ongoing now. An opportunity came up that was too good for me to pass up, and...I can't just abandon my commitment right now. I won't be able to for some time." He put his hand up onto his chest. "I'm actively participating in illegal imperium smuggling operations. I don't think you want to be around that. And I'm not going to make you be around that."

Serenity slowly tilted her head to the side, holding silent for a moment.

"I mean, understand, it's...it's _completely_ different from how it was before. Before, I was just being an idiot, I didn't understand how things worked, I was putting myself in dangerous situations, I was way too close to the street operations, I...I don't know what I was thinking, but, the fact remains, I don't want you to have to act as my wife any more than you absolutely have to, given what I'm involved in." Endymion looked down at the carpet beneath his feet. "It...it kills me to say all that, really, but...you deserve the truth."

"How is it different now?" Serenity asked.

"Oh, I...all I do is lab work now," Endymion said under his breath. "I just make the product. I'm working with someone now who handles everything else. I'm basically taking on no risk, I'm insulated from the actual selling and...it's just like a job now." He shrugged. "But, it's still very much illegal."

"A grey area," Serenity said softly. Endymion had a physical reaction to those words, immediately snapping his head over towards his wife.

"E-excuse me?" Endymion asked.

"That's what you said. Morally grey," she continued. "Remember?"

"...y-yes…" he said tentatively.

"I've been doing some reading over the last couple cycles," Serenity said. "I wanted to...have an open mind and at least consider your side of things. And I think you might have a point."

"I do?" Endymion said without thinking. Serenity turned to give him a raised eyebrow, serving well to remind him to not be so careless with his words. He gave his head a little shake. "I...I mean...no, no, I _do_ , but...I just...didn't think you'd ever be able to see it that way."

"I was angry, and I didn't want to hear it," she admitted. "But, I figured the least I could do is try, so I did some reading."

"What did you read?" Endymion asked, fighting to not make it sound as if he was surprised that Serenity knew how to read.

"Uh...let me think." She looked down at her lap, eyes narrowing slightly in thought. " _In Defense Of A Free Market_ by Jorgunson of Mercury, _The Good, The Bad, and The Agency_ by Alexios, _What Black Market Imperium Can Do For You_ by Diana of Uranus...oh, um, just to get both sides, there was also _The Galactic Imperium Agency is Saving your Grandchildren_ by Aegidius." She looked up. "I think that's it."

Endymion stared at his wife as if a second head was sprouting up out of her left shoulder. "You...you read all of those?"

"I had to, I needed to...to try _something_ so I could understand all this. And, I mean...I think that, maybe...well, it's a complicated issue. Not black and white. There's good, and there's bad." She bobbed her head a bit. "So...yes. I think you might have a point."

Endymion swallowed down hard. "So...you mean...what, you approve of what I'm doing?"

Slowly, Serenity turned towards him, expression having noticeably stiffened, getting him to withdraw his head back slightly. "Understand this, Endymion. I never asked you to do any of this. I never wanted you to do any of this. Don't you _dare_ try to pretend that I'm the reason why you got involved in this. And regardless of everything else, I don't accept all the lying. I'm not okay with you trying to hide all of this from me." She blinked a few times. "What I mean, is that...maybe we can make this work. Maybe."

Endymion was afraid to say anything this time, just waiting for her to continue.

"I'm willing to try, anyway," Serenity said quietly. "It's the best thing for all of us."

"I've committed to at least nine more cycles of working with my partner," Endymion said timidly. "I...I don't particularly want to break my agreement."

She pursed her lips. "Well, you spending a lot of time outside of the palace might not be such a bad idea. If I decide to move back in." She slowly got to her feet. "If." She looked around the back side of the room slowly. "For us to get to that point, I need you to promise me two things. No more lying, that's obvious. Whatever it is that you get involved in from now on, I need to know about it. If what you're doing is...so awful and horrific that you can't bring yourself to tell me about it, then you shouldn't be doing it. That goes for anything."

Endymion nodded, propping his elbows up on his knees and hunching over a bit. "Of course."

"And, Endymion, really. What you said about how...there's no danger anymore. It _has_ to stay that way. Not just for you, but...me, Chibiusa, your father...none of us can be put at risk by this. The moment this stops being a...a job in a lab, I don't care what promises you've made. If you, or anyone else, is being put in danger because of your involvement in this, you need to get out."

"Oh, I don't think we have anything to worry about on that front," Endymion said.

"Seriously, Endymion," Serenity continued to push, turning around and crossing her arms over her chest. "You are the father of an infant. You're the Crown Prince of Earth. Whatever you're getting out of this, it's _not_ worth you dying over."

"I know, I know," Endymion admitted. "I was being stupid at first, I see that now. Trust me, Serenity, what I'm doing now, it's really...not all that different from a baker, or a landscaper. It's a job. No more violence, no more people getting hurt. That's how this works from now on." He slowly got to his feet. "And...thank you for hearing me out. I'm really happy that you at least understand why I did this."

Serenity gave a bitter little laugh. "Oh, not even close." She gave him a bit of an incredulous look. "Nowhere near that."

Demurred, Endymion averted his gaze from her a bit.

"I have _no_ idea why you did all this, Endy. Not a clue. I can't even begin to make sense of that part of it." She wiped her right palm over her forehead. "All I've done is...get to a point where I don't have to think you're a terrible person anymore. I have no idea _why_ you thought this was a good use of your time."

Endymion thought for a moment, absentmindedly slipping his hands into his pockets. "Um...well, Serenity, I…"

"Don't say it," Serenity warned.

"I...I wasn't," Endymion said. "I was, uh...well...I was just trying to...to...stand up to the tide," he managed, somewhat weakly and unconvincingly.

Serenity bit the inside of her right cheek, thinking for a moment. "I don't know what that means, Endymion."

"Oh, well, you know...we...we used to be gorillas. You know?" He squeezed his eyes shut. "N-nevermind."

Serenity focused on Chibiusa for a brief moment. "O-oh, Endymion. One last thing. How does Princess Mercury factor into this?"

Endymion blanched, not expecting her line of inquiry to go in this direction.

"She still won't answer my calls or return my messages, so...she's involved somehow, isn't she? Is she helping you?" She squinted. "Doesn't seem like her."

"No, definitely not," Endymion said with a nervous smile. "Wow, pretty much forgot about that." He sighed. "You're going to hate me."

"Maybe," Serenity acknowledged. "What did you do to her, then? Let's start practicing this whole telling me the truth thing now."

"I didn't hurt her," Endymion said quickly, putting his hands out towards her. "Not...not physically, anyway. I didn't touch her." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I...I scared them."

"Them?" Serenity pounced on immediately.

"Ah, uh...Queen Mars. She was involved too. They...they found out."

Serenity frowned, scratching at the side of her face. "How did they find out?"

"I'm still a little fuzzy on that myself," Endymion admitted. "It was confusing, but, somehow, they were able to figure it out. It was that night at the Opera, on Neptune. So, I...I threatened them. I told them that my father was in on it too, and if they tried to turn me in, I'd just deny it and cover it up, and then we'd declare war on them."

Serenity let an exasperated exhale go. "Oh, Gods. Endy."

"I know, I know, it was...it came up out of nowhere, I had to scramble to come up with...with _something_ to get them to back off." Endymion timidly sat back down on the corner of the bed.

"Your father?" Serenity said accusingly. "Endy, that's...look, if I can see how damaging and dangerous saying something like that could be, then I'm sure you can."

"It had to be done," Endymion insisted. "I...I think that they're assuming that you don't know what's going on, so they're afraid to talk to you."

"Queen Mars has talked to me a few times since I moved out," Serenity said slowly. "She's seemed...normal."

Endymion shrugged. "I guess she has more faith in her ability to keep her emotions in check. But, in any case, Princess Mercury is shutting you out because she's worried that if she lets something slip to you, I'll blame her."

"Mmmm," Serenity groaned. "Alright, I...I'll get in contact with her somehow and tell her I know, I guess."

"Ah, uh...be careful," Endymion warned. "The only reason she hasn't blown this whole thing up is that she thinks my father is the mastermind. If she learns that that isn't the case, then...well, there's no telling what happens." He shrugged. "I probably can't survive a full agency investigation."

"I know, I know," Serenity said. "M-Mercury's my friend. She has been for a long time. I'll just...I'll just tell her I know and she doesn't have to worry about what she says to me."

Endymion winced. "Just be careful. No matter what, it's...it's going to be hard to avoid it being awkward. I'm sorry."

Finally, the room was silent for several long moments. Endymion glanced over quickly, wondering if the exhausting conversation was finally over, but Serenity was still sizing him up. He nervously glanced about.

"How do you do it?" Serenity asked.

"Hm?" Endymion looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

"Just...the whole thing. How do you just...lie like that?" Serenity continued, looking at her husband with somewhat cold and affronted glare, that somehow managed to be a bit playful at the same time.

Endymion rattled out a sigh, hanging his head a bit. "Serenity, I...I really was just trying to protect you, I didn't want you to know. You knowing just puts that much more of a burden on you."

"No, no, not...not me. I just mean in general," she corrected. "All the time, to...to everyone. You're involved in one of the biggest imperium smuggling operations ever, and then you come home and you...spend all this time with your father, someone who's spending half of his time trying to end imperium smuggling." She constricted her arms around her chest a little tighter. "The Earth Royal House's public stance on the issue is one of strict regulation, and you're living here while being involved in that, it's...it's like you're...just telling a never ending lie, constantly. How do you do that?"

The Earth Prince squinted, surprised to find that he wasn't really sure how to answer. He didn't even really know where to start.

"Um...I don't really know. I just do it," Endymion said. "I don't really think about it. I just compartmentalize and do it."

"I don't think very many people are capable of doing something like that," Serenity said, tone clipped. "I certainly never thought you'd be someone who was."

"Neither did I," Endymion said. "So...I...what do we do now?"

She went over to the front side of the bed, where Chibiusa remained asleep. "I'll...head back, think all this over, and we'll see." Gently, she scooped the sleeping child up, moving her over towards the carrier by the door.

"But, you're on board with all this now?" Endymion asked nervously. "Sorry, I'm just honestly confused about where we stand."

"Me too," Serenity said, setting Chibiusa into the cushioned seat without waking her up. "But, I suppose, if we just...slowly start seeing each other more, ease back into being a couple, and at some point, I move back in...it's a story that people will buy."

Endymion sheepishly put his hands behind his back, thinking. Finally, as the baby carrier began to levitate slightly, he nodded. "Alright."

"Almost forgot," Serenity said, quickly stepping around Endymion over to the corner of the bed, reaching down and picking up the small box containing the golden brooch. Endymion watched her in rapt fascination, clearly surprised. She popped the box open, looking down at the impressive piece of jewelry for several moments. Finally, she popped the box closed, then turned to her husband and presented it out to him. "I don't think we're quite there yet."

"Not quite?" Endymion reiterated, slowly reaching down and taking the box, looking somewhat put out.

"Not quite," she agreed with a cheeky little smile.

"

Princess Mercury scribbled her pen along the surface of the paper in rapid, perfectly-symmetrical cursive writing, spilling out sentences via ink almost as fast as some people could think up those sentences in their minds. The room was quiet outside of the whirring, scratching noise of the pen running along paper.

The blue-haired young woman was jolted from her almost trance-like state by a soft knock at the door to her right, even this gentle intrusion enough to nearly cause her to toss her pen up into the air. She quickly gathered herself. "Yes? Come in."

A middle-aged woman cracked the door open and poked her head in. "Your Highness. Princess Serenity is here, she says she wants to see you."

Mercury didn't even bother trying to hide her distress at the mere mention of that name, eyes going wide and face paling. "U-uh, t-tell her I'm not here," she said quickly, trying to not sound panicked.

"I did," the maid answered. "She said she knows you're here, and she's not leaving until you meet with her."

Mercury closed her eyes, hanging her head a bit as she thought. "Tell her—"

"Mercury, we need to do this now."

Mercury's heart nearly leapt into her throat, as the maid withdrew her head back out into the hallway. "Your Highness, I told you to wait in the main hallway."

"I know you did, there...there's a misunderstanding between me and Mercury right now, and we need to work it out."

Mercury pressed her hands up over her mouth, eyes practically spinning as she looked around her room, searching for something that could save her from this highly-delicate and dangerous scenario.

"Well, Your Highness, I did—"

"L-let her in," Mercury said, a flat resignation in her voice. "It's okay, Kalini, just...let her in."

The door slowly slid open a bit, Kalini peering back inside. "Your Highness, you're sure?"

She was anything but sure. But she forced herself to give a sturdy nod. "Yes. S-she can come in, and...it's fine."

Looking entirely unconvinced, Kalini nevertheless slowly pushed the door the rest of the way, revealing Princess Serenity, hands clasped in front of her.

"K-Kalini, you can...you can go," Mercury said, stiffening up at the sight of the Moon Princess standing in the threshold.

"If you're...if you're sure," she said nervously, eyes dancing back and forth between the two members of royalty.

"It's fine, I...don't worry about it," Mercury assured her. "Leave us alone, please."

Serenity stepped into the room and Kalini closed the door behind her. The blonde Princess took a few moments to examine the room, luxurious even by her high standards. No space was wasted in the massive chamber, artifacts and rare objects of all kinds in every direction. It was hard to even focus on one particular item, the wealth and taste on display was so overwhelming. Mercury, on the other hand, felt as if the room was shrinking, the encounter may as well have been taking place in a pitch-black void, nothing but the two young women present. Even though she was on her home planet, in her palace, sitting in her room, amid the treasures and relics of a hundred generations that spoke to her tremendous position of power and affluence, she didn't feel remotely comfortable.

Serenity just stared at her for several beats, carefully judging how to approach this. Mercury was clearly afraid to even open her mouth.

"Mercury, I know everything," Serenity said. The blue-haired Princess startled a bit at the sudden breaking of the silence, exacerbated by the surprising proclamation. "I...is it safe for us to talk about this?"

Mercury blinked rapidly several times in succession, as if dazed, and then nodded.

"I know everything that's going on," Serenity said, a gentle, soothing smile springing up on her face. "And I know that you've been avoiding me and staying out of contact with me because...well, you didn't know that. And you were afraid of accidentally giving it away. That's not a concern, I promise. He's told me everything."

Mercury looked rather shocked. "I...everything?"

"Yes, I'm positive, he...I found out everything not too long after you did, actually. And I know what...what Endymion said to you." She winced sympathetically.

"I heard you had...moved out, so I had my suspicions," Mercury said quietly. "But I couldn't be sure how much you knew, so, I...I couldn't...I didn't…"

"Mercury, it's okay. I completely understand. You must have felt awful about it, and...and I'm sorry you had to go through that And, Endymion...he's sorry he had to do that. I'm sure the last thing you need right now is to see him, and he knows that too, but for whatever it's worth, he feels bad about all that."

Mercury stared blankly, still entirely off-kilter from the consistent stream of revelations coming from Serenity.

"But I want you to know that you don't have to be scared around me," Serenity continued. "I promise there's nothing you can tell me that I don't already know. And, if possible, I'd like for us to try to pretend like this whole thing never happened." She walked up closer to Mercury, happy to see that she didn't flinch away. "We...we should still be friends, Mercury."

"S-so...Serenity, what...what's going on now?" Mercury asked, throat still a little tight. "I...if you know everything, then...well, where does that leave you?"

"Oh...I'm still trying to figure that out," Serenity admitted. "It's such a crazy situation I'm in, I...I never imagined in a thousand years I'd be in the middle of all of this." She shrugged. "I'm trying to work it out. I'm not...I'm not happy about it, but I think you know better than anyone, I'm sort of...stuck."

Immediately, Mercury looked alarmed again. Serenity quickly put her hands out towards her. "No, no! Mercury, I...I'm not blaming you at all for any of that, I promise. There's no way you could have seen something like this happening, and you did everything you could on the merger agreement, I...nothing like that, Mercury."

Mercury's eyes went downcast slightly, scratching the back of her neck. "Work it out...with Endymion?"

Serenity nodded. "I have to stay married to him, and we've already had a kid, so...I can't say I'm exactly happy about it, but I've...I mean, it's happened. And now I'm here." She cleared her throat. "But that's not important, what's important is that—"

"Serenity, I haven't told anyone," Mercury said quickly. "I haven't. And I won't. Ever."

"Oh, I'm not concerned about that," Serenity said airily. "If you had told someone, I'm sure Endymion would—"

"No, really," Mercury said, an audible tension in her voice. She put her hands up a bit, palms out towards Serenity. "Serenity, I give you my word. I haven't told anyone. And I will never breathe a word of any of this. No exceptions."

"Mercury, I believe you," Serenity said. "I—"

"Really," she whispered. "All of this. Every last bit of it. I will never say anything." She nodded. "I just, I really need you to understand that. Nobody will _ever_ hear any of this from me."

Serenity's smile dropped a bit, and she slowly glanced along the floor at Mercury's feet. Finally, she gave a firm now. "Um...good."

"

Kunzite pushed the two large bins together, each of them full to the brim with synthesized imperium. "Almost two libras over in total."

"Wonderful," Cronus said, looking back and forth at the two large collections of clear crystals. "Payment is up on the catwalk, then."

Endymion looked up above the laboratory at the metal walkway above, quickly finding the modestly-sized crate by the door leading out.

"Oh, and Your Highness, thank you for your generous contributions towards my fundraiser the other day," Cronus added as Tellu came over to assist in guiding the floating bins over towards the lift in the corner. "The brooch, especially. Really, when you can open up an auction with big figures and fast bids just flying all over the place, it loosens everyone up. It really helped the rest of the night."

"Mm," Endymion muttered, nodding as the two large bodyguards pushed the imperium to the lift. "Good to see you."

"Next batch, five thousand two hundred," Cronus instructed, putting his hand up on Endymion's right shoulder. "It's selling with no end in sight, let's keep pushing it."

"Say, Cronus, let me ask you something," Endymion said, the dull hum of the lift rising filling the room. "How do we do it?"

"Do what?" Cronus asked.

"Lie, the way we do," Endymion continued, half his focus on the lift getting up flush with the catwalk. "Just constantly lie to everyone."

Cronus smiled bemusedly. "Your Highness, you seem perfectly proficient at it yourself, seems to me like you should have a pretty good understanding of that."

"Cronus, I've got nothing on you!" Endymion exclaimed. "You ran a massive charity fundraiser for the agency, tens of millions of creds, all the while you're the one who's been weakening them constantly over the last decade with your black market efforts. You get up on a stage in front of the most powerful people in the galaxy and tell them how the agency is working to save civilization, and then you turn around do more to undermine them than anyone in the history of the galaxy. I mean, I know what I'm doing, I understand, but you're running circles around me. How do we do this? Because, when you think about it, most people could never do all this. Just one big constant lie that never ends. It would tear most people apart."

Cronus pursed his lips, thinking for a moment. "Hm. Interesting."

"It just kind of occurred to me, recently, I've just been doing it this whole time. Never really thought about how I was doing it." He shrugged. "You've been doing this a lot longer than me, I thought maybe you'd know. How do we do it?"

The pharmaceutical Kingpin stared at Endymion for a moment. "The human eye can see more shades of green than any other color."

Endymion's unfocused gaze snapped into focus, and he turned his body towards Cronus. "What was that?"

"The human eye can see more shades of green than any other color, and if you can figure out _why_ that's the case, you'll have your answer," he said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder a couple times before walking over to the spiral stairs on the other side of the room. "Think about it!"

Endymion just stared dully, confused, as the older man began to take the steps two at a time. Despite the mysterious answer that did not move him any closer to understanding things better, he finally gave an amused grin.

"

Princess Venus ran her fingers across the tablet surface at lightning-quick speeds, forehead knitted in concentration as she examined the screen in her hands. Aphrodite sat right next to her, holding silent, able to clearly see that her Princess was very much occupied and zoned in on her work and that she wouldn't appreciate an interruption. _The Genetrix_ was only hosting two people today, all the other lieutenants out on business.

"It doesn't make any sense," Venus muttered.

"A-are you talking to me?' Aphrodite asked, legs squeezing together a bit nervously.

"I'm just talking," Venus said. "To myself, anyone around, the wall, the chair, whoever." She sighed.

"So...still not sure who Tuxedo Mask could be?" Aphrodite couldn't help but be curious, despite an instinctive desire to let her Princess tell her when she was ready.

"There's an imperium smuggler out there," Venus said, setting the screen down at her side and leaning back on the chaise. "He's been active for over a decade, working on almost every planet and moon in the galaxy, responsible for a huge piece of the black market imperium over the past decade. The agency is funded to the high heavens and armed with the finest technology in the universe, and has a nearly limitless supply of manpower. And they haven't even scratched the surface of being able to find him. It just doesn't make any sense."

Venus's lieutenant sat there in silence, letting her talk it out without interruption.

"And this 'Tuxedo Mask', it...I don't understand. They're nowhere near him. I looked at the list of arrests and convictions since the agency started, it's massive, the failure rate is microscopic, but these two...I feel like there has to be some sort of blind spot."

"What do you mean by that?" Aphrodite asked, putting her intertwined fingers beneath her chin.

"These people that the agency can't find, for some reason, they just have to be...people they would never even think about looking at. For one reason or another, they're considered beyond reproach, and they can't even consider the possibility."

"So someone on the council, you mean?" she asked. "How would we even investigate that?"

"Possibly, but...we don't have to start there." She turned to look at her lieutenant. "Not that my idea is going to be much easier, but I do have a target for you."

"Name them, Your Highness." Aphrodite got to her feet, standing up straight before her Princess. "Who should I look into?"

"A man who's been far too helpful and generous to the agency over the years for me to not be suspicious," Venus mused. "Aphrodite, that pharmaceutical billionaire from Saturn, Cronus. He's been a huge booster for the agency for awhile now. Too huge. They wouldn't even consider looking at him because they're so used to him being so helpful, but I'm wondering."

She nodded. "It's going to take awhile to dig up anything on a man like that."

"I don't need proof," Venus reminded her. "All I need is to know beyond reasonable doubt that he's involved. You get one whiff of anything that he's smuggling imperium, you get it back to me."

She raised her right arm up in a salute. "It will be done, Your Highness."


	34. No More Risk

Chapter 34: No More Risk

A/N: Sorry for the long delay on this upload. I basically couldn't write at all for over a week because of a vacation I wanted to sync up with the break between arcs, but then work got exceedingly busy and I wasn't able to make that happen. And work continued to be busy after my vacation, so things have slowed for the time being. Will try to get back to a more fluid writing schedule from here on out.

"

"So, obviously, I don't have any idea what your mindset has been the last few cycles, but...for whatever it's worth, Mars, I wasn't able to pick up on _anything_ from our conversations. So, hey, you're amazing at hiding things. And I don't mean that as any kind of backhanded compliment."

Queen Mars's private chambers, despite belonging to the highest ranking individual on all the planet, was shockingly modest. Of course, it made sense, with the spirituality that guided her life de-emphasizing the material and promoting simplicity, but Serenity had seen more than enough royal bedrooms in her time to know that this one just didn't fit in. It was certainly clean, well-maintained, and symmetrical, and may have even managed to have a certain regal charm to it, but it just couldn't quite stack up in the typical measures. Serenity was seated in a small red stool against the back wall, Mars slowly pacing back and forth in front of her.

"I really just want you to know that I know everything now," Serenity said, hands folded in her lap. "You don't have to worry about accidentally telling me something, I...I don't want you to feel like you have to second-guess everything you tell me."

Mars slowly nodded, putting her right hand's fingers beneath her chin. "How long have you known?"

"Oh, awhile," she admitted. "Few cycles, maybe close to four. That's why I moved out, that's why I...haven't been around him very much lately." She cleared her throat. "This can't get out, is the thing. It would destroy me, as much as it would him. It's an unfortunate situation, I really don't like...having to go along with it, but it is what it is. I'm trying to work with it the best I can." She put her right hand out towards Mars. "Sorry Endymion threatened you like that, I...he feels bad about it."

"Trying to work with it the best you can," Mars mused quietly, looking down at the floor. "Serenity, what does that mean? You...you are still living in the Moon Palace, yes?"

"O-oh, yes, for now," Serenity said, giving a tight smile. "And, don't worry about it, I've already thought about that part of it. I'm probably moving back into the Earth Palace soon. I don't know exactly when, but...I've been slowly letting Endymion back into my life, I'm seeing him every few days, we're talking it out, coming to an understanding...it's fine, we're working it out."

"You're going back to him?" Mars said, sounding slightly incredulous.

"Well, I can't exactly separate from him, that's...the merger would be annulled," Serenity explained, wilting just a bit under her judging gaze. "So, as long as we're staying together, and...given we have a child together, I'm going to try to salvage things. Get things back to the way they were. Or at least, as close as possible."

"Serenity, your husband...you must be following the news reports. He's still active, his imperium is being sold virtually everywhere. And even if that _wasn't_ the case, are you sure you really understand what he's done? Have you really grasped the...the sort of person that it takes to make the decisions that he's made?"

Serenity bowed her head a bit. "It hasn't been easy for me to come to terms with all of it," she admitted. "And there was definitely a time there where I thought I didn't want anything to do with him. I'm still mad at him, but...I've spent a lot of time resolving my feelings. I...I just don't believe he's a bad person. He's done bad things, I'm not just pretending like those things didn't happen. But I'm just not ready to walk away from it." She shrugged. "Not like I can, really."

"You've moved out," Mars stated. "You've been moved out for some time now, do you really have to...move back in?"

Serenity pressed her lips together tightly. "It's...it's complicated. There are a lot of things to think about here. I've been thinking about it non-stop for quite some time now, believe me. This is what's best."

Mars sighed, a concerned frown on her face. "Serenity, you know I care about you, right?"

"Of course," Serenity said immediately. "I've never questioned that...o-of course I understand that you couldn't tell me, not after what Endymion said. I'm not upset about that."

"That's not what I meant, exactly," she answered tentatively. "Could I offer you some advice, Serenity? Just as a concerned friend."

"Go ahead," Serenity replied.

Mars's face wrinkled as she thought. "I...let me try to put it this way." She turned towards Serenity, squaring her body up. "When someone, particularly a man, reveals the kind of person that they are, you should believe them. Because by the time you get a second confirmation, it might be too late."

Serenity's smile faded a bit as Mars's transparent warning got her to mentally waver a bit.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" she asked.

Serenity nodded, not meeting Mars's gaze.

"I'm not your mother, I'm not here to tell you what to do. It's your decision. But I have to say, you should be very careful with your next decisions. Because you might not get a second chance at them."

Serenity swallowed down with great effort. "I understand."

"Promise me you'll think about it," Mars asked, compassion and sternness mixing in her tone to produce a request that was impossible to decline.

"I will," she said quietly, voice a little cool.

Queen Mars huffed a large breath. "Okay, then...well, I suppose...I suppose we've cleared the air."

Serenity nodded stiffly.

"

"Last chance, Your Highness," Zoisite said, standing right in the middle of the small, innocuous room that looked like little more than a casual living room, back to a modest fireplace, as he glanced back and forth between the Prince and Princess of the Earth Kingdom.

"Last chance for what?" Serenity asked.

"Um, Serenity, it's…" Endymion shifted his weight back and forth uneasily. "It's just a matter of plausible deniability. I know you said that you wanted to be informed going forward, but there's not really any need for you to actually see all of this. If I get caught, it's just one more thing that could be a problem for you."

"You said you couldn't get caught," Serenity reminded him flatly.

"Well...it's highly unlikely," Endymion said nervously. "But...if something does happen, it's going to be so much better if you can at least credibly pretend that you didn't know that any of this was happening."

Serenity gave a mirthless laugh. "Endymion, we're very, very far beyond that point." Her gaze hardened a bit. "The imperium was found on the Moon. My birthright. I want to see, for myself, what has come of it. I need to see, with my own eyes, why you think this is all worth the time and risk."

Endymion sighed, then looked over at Zoisite and nodded.

"Alright, let...let the record show that I think this is a bad idea," Zoisite mumbled, kneeling down to roll back an oval-shaped blue carpet, pushing it into a roll. He then began to pry up one of the tiles on the floor underneath. Serenity watched intently, Endymion reaching up behind his neck and scratching it, nervously glancing around.

Soon, a trap door in the floor was being pulled upward by Zoisite, revealing a small hatch down into a hidden room. It was dark, the light from above just enough to cast illumination on a pile of tan bags down on the floor. A thick rope ladder led down to the bags. Serenity crouched down, surveying the secret compartment the best she could from above.

"So, this person you're working with, he pays you, and you take what he pays you here?" Serenity asked.

"Right," Endymion answered. "I don't have any legal justification for having it, so I can't just...give it to my father and tell him to stick it in the treasury. So for now, I'm keeping it here."

"But how can it do anyone any good here?" she wondered aloud. "What's the point of making money if the only thing you can do with that money is...hide it?"

Zoisite straightened up. "I'm doing all I can to filter the money into a legitimate account through my various business investments, Your Highness. It's slow, particularly in comparison to the rate at which the money comes in, but it's really the only option available to us."

"When I take the throne, we'll have more options," Endymion added. "I can appoint Zoisite as the Secretary of the Treasury, and he'll have more opportunities to filter money in."

Serenity stuck her head down into the hatch, looking around. After a moment, she lifted herself back up and looked up at her husband, who quickly presented her with a small, pen-shaped black rod. She took it and twisted the top, getting a strong beam of light to shoot out of the end. Ducking back down into the hatch, she surveyed the sea of sealed bags with the additional help of the light.

"Looks like you'll run out of space before then," she mused. She grabbed onto the top rung of the rope ladder and swung herself downward, quickly descending down the short drop. Endymion opened his mouth to protest, but as she disappeared down below, he decided to swallow his complaint.

Serenity fell to her knees by one of the bags, fumbling along the outside of it until she found the mouth. Up above, meanwhile, Kunzite slowly leaned over Endymion's right shoulder.

"This is a very bad idea," Kunzite muttered through gritted teeth. "It's one thing for her to know what you're doing, but to bring her in on every single detail of it. Think about the kind of person she is."

"I don't have a choice," Endymion murmured quietly.

"Gods!" she exclaimed, poking her head into the sack she had just managed to open. "W-wait, are all of these filled with gems?!" Endymion looked down in time to see her crawl over to another bag and begin to quickly open it up.

"Y-yes," Endymion answered. "Moving that amount of typical currency would be cumbersome."

After quickly surveying a large collection of sapphires, she tilted her head back to look up at her husband. "How much money are you getting from this?"

"Oh, about...twelve billion creds a cycle right now," Endymion said.

"Twelve... _billion_ ," she rasped.

"It goes up, I have a percentage of the business," Endymion explained. "The longer I work with him, the more it'll be."

She twisted her head back and forth, doing a rough mental count of the number of giant sacks of gems. "Endy…"

"This...this is why I did this," he said. "I know it might seem silly to take on so much risk for money when you're in my position, but...Serenity, this really could change things for the Kingdom. Just trust me, income streams like this that aren't removing money from the local economy, it's very rare that something like this happens. If it weren't for the regulations imposed by the agency, the imperium that I found probably would have turned the Moon into one of the dominant superpowers in the galaxy overnight."

She slowly nodded. "I get that."

"I wish there was some way I could just...sell all of it at once, be done with it, wash my hands of the business, but it can't be done like that." He shifted around uneasily. "There are a lot of angles here. I can't just have other people take care of everything for me either. I have to be involved."

Kunzite softly cleared his throat, giving his charge a bit of a glare at the back of his head that was unnoticed by the Prince.

"So, sweetie, is this good? Y-you said you...you wanted to see why I was doing this, t-this is why," Endymion said, watching Serenity grab onto the bottom of the rope ladder and start to pull herself back up into the room.

"Not yet," she answered. "I want to see it."

"It?" Endymion repeated.

"Yes. It." Her head popped up through the hatch. "The imperium."

Endymion groaned. "Serenity, please. That's not a good idea, it serves no one's interests."

"Endymion, it came from the Moon. You found it before we were married. You stole it from me." She pulled herself up onto the floor and rolled herself up into a standing position. "You say you did it...did it for my own good, did it for the benefit of my Kingdom, fine, but...I want to see it. I want to see what's such a big deal. I want to see what's so valuable and important that it...could single handedly shift the fate of the entire galaxy, or whatever it was."

Endymion held his lips together tightly, clearly tense and nervous. Finally, however, he looked over his shoulder at Kunzite and gave him a quick nod. Kunzite grumbled a bit, but quickly returned the nod.

"

With a grinding scratch, Nephrite peeled the lid off the top of the black barrel. Serenity eagerly looked inside, surveying the countless clear crystals within, filling the barrel to the brim. She slowly stuck her right hand down into the imperium, brushing her fingertips over the crystals.

Endymion, Kunzite, and Zoisite stood to the side, watching as Serenity's curiosity was satisfied. The quintet were flanked on both sides by massive metal shelves that had been loaded to capacity with similar black barrels, stretching across the full length of the ship interior. The shelving was repeated across the entire primary chamber of the giant carrier, each row crammed together tightly so that the space available was used with maximum efficiency. Nephrite had removed one from one of the bottom rows for Serenity's perusal.

The retired E-class freighter was currently out in the middle of deep space between the orbital lanes of Mars and the asteroid belt, about two million dolichos shy of the belt. The state-of-the-art autopilot system had performed as advertised, perpetually keeping the ship moving along a randomized course that only one person in the universe knew, while avoiding potential hazards and collisions. With the engines constantly running and the ship moving, even if someone happened across the ship by some random chance, they wouldn't think much of it. As risky as it seemed to leave such precious cargo completely unattended, thus far, it had worked perfectly.

"The ship's location at any given time can be determined by solving three complex equations, using time as the variable for each coordinate," Endymion explained as Serenity picked her head up from the imperium examination. "It'll just keep moving forever, adjusting for potential projectiles or obstacles. Whenever we need product, Kunzite flies out to wherever this ship is at the time and picks it up."

"Equations?" Serenity asked.

"Kunzite has them memorized," Endymion added. "It's the best, perhaps only, way to keep a find of this size and significance hidden."

She looked up at the towering barrel stacks up on the top of the shelves, arms crossed over her chest. She scanned all the way down the rows and rows of barrels, trying to count them before immediately deciding it was a pointless endeavor. "All of these are full?"

Endymion turned to look at Kunzite.

"Every barrel here is full," he replied. "Some of the shelves over towards the back side are empty, but when we first moved all of the imperium in, the entire hold was basically full."

Serenity nodded, face still hardened with a look of determination. "How much imperium is this?"

Kunzite exhaled, glancing down at the floor for a moment. "At this point, I would say...just shy of sixty million libras."

"Enough to run the galaxy for hundreds of years," Zoisite commented. "Many times more than what the agency has in storage."

"It's worth quadrillions of creds," Endymion added. "More than the entirety of the Earth Kingdom."

Serenity put her right hand's index finger up to just above her lip, blinking down hard several times in rapid succession.

"So, um...is that all you needed to see?" Endymion asked hopefully. "Are you...you're satisfied?"

She grimaced, then closed the distance between her and Endymion with a couple quick steps. "No more risk," she ordered, putting her index finger up into his chest. "No danger. No violence. You promise me that, whatever happens while you're involved in imperium smuggling, none of that." She waved her right hand up behind her, towards the hundreds of barrels. "I'll find a way to live with this. But I've recently had two very uncomfortable conversations with longtime, close friends of mine, because of this. I don't want any more of those. This stays compartmentalized from our lives from now on."

Endymion was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered enough to nod his head. "Y-yes, of course. I already said, the mistakes that I made before were just that, mistakes."

"You promise me that this is just...lab work from now on, and I'll stand by you," she said. "I'll turn the other way and pretend that...that you're a baker who makes really valuable bread. But the moment things turn into something more than just that, you have to get out."

Endymion reached up and gently put his left hand up on her shoulder. "Alright, Serenity. I promise. No more risk, no more danger, no more violence."

She glanced over at his left hand, her stern expression holding strong. "Okay. Then...then I'll stand by you. And we'll work through this."

"

Cronus slowly ran his finger along the colored map in front of him, focusing intently on the drawn terrain. "Surely, The Rings must be starting to realize that some third party has decided to involve themselves in this war. Eventually, they're going to be prepared for it."

"What can they do?" Tellu replied, leaning up over from the opposite side of the desk as Cronus tapped away at a point on the map. "They can't even keep up with Saturn's forces at this point. They don't have anywhere near enough resources to try to prepare for a random attack at a random location at a random time. I'll take two thousand mercenaries to Dione, land them right on top of that hill, we hit the barracks, two minutas, we'll be out of there."

"Putting actual troops on the ground is concerning to me," Cronus mused. "The last thing I need is putting something out there that could potentially lead back to me. I'm _not_ going to be able to explain it, you understand?"

"You'll have nothing to explain," Tellu said confidently. "We're going to hit them so quickly, they won't even have time to think about a counter before we're out. And we'll be using mercenaries, so—"

The communicator disc on the desk began to flash a series of colors, drawing Cronus's attention away from the serious conversation.

"Let it go to recording," Tellu said dismissively, waving her hand over towards the disc. Cronus, however, moved to grab it.

"Not this one, I'm afraid," he said simply. With a tap to the middle part of the disc, he held it up in front of his mouth. "Good afternoon, Cronus of Saturn speaking."

The voice that replied was clearly feminine in tone, sounding rather young.

"Cronus! Is now a good time for a short discussion?"

"Um...yes, sure, that's perfectly fine with me. I see you're calling from an official Galactic Imperium Agency line, so...at the risk of making a fool of myself, might I chance a guess? Am I speaking to Princess Venus?" Cronus said, immediately exuding charisma.

"Right you are!" Venus replied. "I'm just starting to.. .get a feel for things around here, really throwing myself into things...fascinating stuff, really. Let me tell you, people around here talk about you all the time. You're a big deal here! So, I was interested in, maybe, having a little discussion? Building a rapport? Maybe get your perspective on things?"

Cronus hesitated briefly, giving the communicator a bit of an odd look. "Um...well, if you think it would be beneficial to you, then by all means. I'm happy to do whatever I can to assist the agency. Maybe we could meet in-person in the coming days?"

"Well…"

Cronus's nose wrinkled as an obnoxious static overtook Princess Venus's voice, filling the connection.

"...I think that…"

"Um, Your Highness, I'm getting some interference on my end." Cronus said loudly. "Are you hearing that?"

More static.

"...call you back…"

"R-right, Your Highness, call me back any time and we'll try to work something out," Cronus instructed, reaching forward towards the disc.

"...personal line…"

He tapped the center of the device, ending the conversation and getting the various blinking lights on the device to fizzle out. "You know, I wasn't really expecting her to take an active role over there."

"It's strange," Tellu agreed.

"Gods, I hope she loses interest quickly," Cronus said with a little grin. "I'm busy enough without—"

The communicator began to ring again, Cronus unable to hold back on rolling his eyes and sighing.

"Alright," he grumbled, planting his right index finger into the center of the communicator. "Princess Venus?"

"Is this better? Can you hear me?" Venus asked.

"Yes, Your Highness, that's better," Cronus said. "Now—"

"Listen to me very carefully," she ordered. "You're going to want to hear what I have to say, and your fate is tied very closely to how you choose to react to what I have to say." Her voice, despite being very clearly coming from the same person, had unmistakably changed into a more aggressive tone.

Cronus slowly tilted his head to the right, giving the communicator a bit of an odd look. "Um...well, yes, I can hear you," he said slowly, unable to put together an appropriate reaction to her melodramatic statement.

"Cronus, I know everything. You're the one we've been chasing all these years. You've been running imperium for a decade."

Tellu visibly tensed her entire body up, and Cronus was clearly thrown by the strong and immutable accusation. He gulped down a building lump in his throat, then forced a casual indifference into his tone. "Your Highness, I think you may have the wrong person."

"Cronus, don't waste time playing games. You don't have very much of it if you want to remain free after today."

Cronus cleared his throat, settling back into the cushioned desk chair, weighing his words carefully. "Princess Venus, I suspect you're not feeling well. Why don't you go lie down and call me back when you're seeing things more clearly?"

"Cronus, I can have half the agency smashing down on you and everything you own in less than two minutas."

Cronus pursed his lips tightly, leaning his head back, absentmindedly cracking his knuckles. "It's a very...odd accusation, Your Highness. I'm wondering where it came from."

"Not your concern," she said sternly. "All that matters is that it just so happens that you're not the one I want."

This statement got his attention, bringing his head back down level, staring at the communicator. While it didn't particularly matter, since the communicator was transmitting only audio, his concern was clearly evident on his face. It wasn't often that Cronus ever let his facade slip at all, so Venus's accusations were obviously shaking him.

"Princess Venus—"

"I want your chemists, Cronus. I know it's not you, you don't have enough time for lab work on that scale. I'm happy to settle for you if you don't want to work with me, but there's a scenario where you get to walk away."

Cronus's forehead wrinkled, as his concern and fear was turned to confusion. "Wait—"

"I need answers fast, Cronus. Or rather, you do, you're the one with everything to lose. It's very simple. You make it easy for us to arrest and bring in your imperium chemists, and you'll get the opportunity to clean up your mess in time to stay out of prison."

Tellu instinctively rocketed up to her feet, quickly jumping around as if expecting a sudden invasion of agency troopers through the door and windows. Cronus, however, remained focused on the conversation, though he continued to not contribute very much to it.

"Cronus, if I think you're stalling, there's no deal," Venus warned. "Give me a time and location where your chemists can be arrested, and you'll be given time to cover your tracks. There's a good chance we'll get your chemists anyway if we go after you."

Cronus slowly opened his mouth, staring down at the disc on the desk before him, mind racing through scenarios.

"Cronus?"

"Tomorrow. The laboratory on Deimos. First floor, east wing break room. Around the twentieth minuta," he finally said, slowly and deliberately.

"If you're lying, you're on the chopping block." With that final ominous proclamation, the connection was terminated, and Tellu took the opportunity to immediately voice her concerns.

"You can't be serious!" she snapped. Cronus, however, was ripping open one of the drawers to his right, pulling out a stack of folders and tossing them to the ground before pulling out one from the bottom.

"Put the Dione mission on hold," Cronus ordered, ripping a band wrapped around the folder and opening it. "This takes priority."

"Cronus, I...Endymion and Kunzite have had _direct_ contact with you multiple times, if we turn them in, they'll turn _you_ in!" Tellu protested.

"This way, we'll actually have some time to cover our tracks, we'll just have to use it well," he said. While there was definitely a rapid urgency to his tone, given how fast the last handful of secundas had turned the situation against him, he remained remarkable put-together and composed.

"We...how did she find out?!" Tellu asked, staring at the inactive communicator as Cronus rapidly flipped through the pages within the folder. "Ten years, the agency hasn't come close to us, and this girl just solves the whole thing in a couple cycles?!"

"All that matters is that she has found out," Cronus said, pulling a red envelope from the middle of the folder and handing it to Tellu. "We need to move quickly, take this and follow the instructors to the letter. We'll have a matter of days before Endymion tries to give us up to reduce his charges."

Tellu snatched the red envelope out of Cronus's hand. "I...I just don't understand," she continued to muse. "Why would she...this doesn't make any sense, why would she offer us a deal?! Why does she want our chemists more than us?!"

"Good questions," Cronus admitted, picking up the communicator and starting to turn the knobs on the side of it. "That I do not have the time to try to answer right now. The only thing that matters right now is survival." He pointed at the envelope at her hands. She began to open it, roughly tearing at the seam and yanking a couple of sheets of paper out.

"Just...you have to admit, something isn't right here," Tellu grumbled.

"Maybe," Cronus conceded. "But by the time I could confirm it one way or the other, it would probably be too late. If we're fast, we'll survive. And, if we're lucky...it might even work to our advantage." With a final press of his thumb to the center of the disc, the communicator activated.

"

"Kunzite, it _had_ to happen that way," Endymion said defensively, as the two young men casually strolled down the pristine white hallways towards the east wing break room of the Deimos installation of Galen Laboratories. "And you heard her, she's...she's on board! She's okay with it!"

Kunzite teetered his head back and forth a bit, a frown on his face. "Your Highness, you can't honestly be comfortable with _her_ knowing all of your secrets like this. One thing for her to know in general, but to let her in on everything is beckoning disaster."

"I am comfortable!" Endymion replied through gritted teeth. "She knows that she'll lose everything if this gets out. She...she has every incentive in the world to keep a lid on things." The pair turned to the right, into a small room with a few round tables and plastic chairs scattered about, as well as a row of food dispenser machines against the far wall. Kunzite took a brief moment to scan the room to make sure they were alone, then leaned back to check down both sides of the long hallway.

"With all due respect, Your Highness, Princess Serenity is emotional and immature in a way that we simply aren't. Logic will leave her far easier than it leaves us," Kunzite said, going over to one of the dispensaries on the right side.

"Maybe not," Endymion countered. "She's certainly surprised me recently. There's more to her than even I expected."

Kunzite sighed, grabbing the upper right corner of the dispenser. "Just let the record show that I think it was a bad idea to bring your wife into this any deeper than the absolute bare minimum."

"You know I love her still," Endymion protested. "If I had a chance to get back on good terms with her, I had to take it."

Kunzite begrudgingly nodded, then gave the dispenser a tug out. Surprised to find it not immediately giving under his pull, he gave it a larger yank. It did not smoothly slide out from the wall as it had done dozens of times in recent cycles, instead merely scraping a tiny distance across the floor. Mere fractions of a finger length. Endymion looked down at the base of the rectangular dispenser, noting the miniscule move that it had made.

"What the…" Kunzite leaned in closer to the wall, peeking behind the dispenser, using the small distance he had managed to pull it out to look behind it. His eyes widened, and he quickly pushed off the wall and grabbed Endymion's shoulders and began to guide him back towards the hallway. "It's been sealed off, we need to get out of here."

"Wait, wha—"

"HOLD IT!"

Endymion felt as if his stomach had come very close to jumping straight out of his mouth as the situation quickly went from alarming to an unmitigated disaster. He turned to look over his shoulder, dreading what he might see. It was as bad as his worst fears, as three heavily armored and uniformed figures stood out in the hallway, pointing large plasma rifles at him and his bodyguard. The uniforms, complete with tinted face masks, made all three of the figures look roughly identical and unidentifiable, and the triangular logo on the chest plates marked them as agency troopers. It was all so much bad news at once that Endymion couldn't even process it immediately.

The situation was bad enough for Kunzite to not even try a violent escape, with three high-powered weapons pointed at his charge, and he instead opted to slowly release the Prince and back away.

"ON THE GROUND!" one of the troopers ordered. "HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!"

Endymion went through the motions of what was being ordered of him, as did his general, but his mind was still processing the horrific ramifications of what was happening and what would happen next. He didn't even particularly get upset as one of the agency soldiers roughly grabbed his wrists from behind his head and pulled them down behind his back to be cuffed, a rather unnecessarily rough bit of treatment that he would have expected his princely status to protect himself from.

In short order, he was laying flat on the ground, face down, hands locked together behind his back. Two more agency soldiers entered the room to finalize the arrest. He probably should have been listening to what they were saying, but he just couldn't quite get the memory of his most recent conversation with his wife out of his head.

Something about no more risks.


	35. Fracture

Chapter 35: Fracture

A/N: Sorry this took longer than I wanted to get up. Got sick and was not really in the mood to write for a good few days.

"

It took every last muscle in Prince Endymion's face to keep his expression neutral. A close enough look would easily give away how hard he was working to hold it together. He wanted to be stoic in this moment, but the inevitable consequences that were headed right towards him, with no options for him to avoid them, were bearing down on him hard.

He was seated right next to Kunzite, the two of them buckled into seats right in the middle of a small, square room that comprised the vast majority of an A class ship, currently jumping through space. A heavily-armed and armored trooper sat in each corner of the room, keeping all of their focus and attention on the two prisoners from behind the visors covering their faces.

Endymion glanced over to Kunzite, fighting off the overwhelming urge to say something. He knew enough to know that attempting to have a conversation right now would be the last thing either of them needed. And he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to say, anyway. Although, he really wanted to say something.

Part of him wanted to try to do something as meaningless and vapid as apologizing. It wasn't exactly the kind of relationship they had, but the Prince certainly knew that the situation they currently found themselves in was effectively all on him. Kunzite had spent much of the last year protesting his involvement in this business at all. Were it up to him, they wouldn't be anywhere close to where they were right now. That seemed to warrant some sort of contrition.

He also couldn't help but notice how alert Kunzite looked, glancing back and forth between the armed sentries in each corner, and also seemingly examining the walls of the ship around them. It was almost enough to make Endymion wonder if his general was trying to figure a way out of this situation, as hopeless and final as it may have seemed to him. He wanted to ask Kunzite if that was, indeed, what was currently running through his head. He knew Kunzite to be of extraordinary intelligence and capable of quick thinking, and the possibility of him crafting an escape plan seemed feasible. But, again, he did not dare ask, for very obvious reasons.

And then, just like that, the sobering imminent reality of having to face his father over all this smacked him right in the face, and all thoughts of a miraculous escape were gone. He had no idea how he was going to handle it. He could only assume that it would be his father that would be right there to greet him the moment he landed, so he would have little time to prepare for it.

His stream of thoughts was interrupted as the four guards got to their feet. The iron straps that held the Prince and his general onto the chairs retracted, although both were equally deterred from standing up by the sudden presence of plasma rifles pointed in their direction.

"Alright, let's go," one of them ordered. "Up."

Both got to their feet as a couple of flashing green lights on the right wall precluded a large portion of the surface sliding to the left, opening up to a short tunnel down to a steel door.

"You two go first," the trooper instructed. Kunzite was examining the docking tunnel, Endymion able to pick up on his odd fascination with what seemed like an irrelevant detail to him. "Now!"

With that second prompting, both young men marched into the thin tunnel, not enough room for them to go side-by-side. Kunzite led the way, Endymion right on his heels.

"I'm sorry," Endymion whispered, leaning up close to Kunzite's head.

"I wouldn't apologize just yet," Kunzite mumbled back.

"Quiet up there!"

As Kunzite stopped in front of the steel door, waiting, Endymion was given a split second of optimism before dismissing it as his general trying to make him feel a little better in his final moments before facing his ultimate fate of being disowned and imprisoned. Surely it was one of his duties, to try to comfort him when facing down doom?

With a pneumatic hiss, the door whisked open, revealing a large, mostly black room that seemed to possess rounded walls. A large wooden desk was in the middle of the room, two smaller chairs right in front of it, and a large, cushioned seat behind it. The seat was turned away from the door. Otherwise, the room was oddly barren, seemingly far too large for the purpose it was serving. Perhaps some sort of new-wave style from Neptune or Uranus that the agency was trying to adopt.

"Take your seats," came the voice from behind them. With no other readily obvious seats available, the two men marched over to the ones in front of the desk. Endymion stared right at the back of the large chair, imagining who he might find sitting in it in a few secundas. His father, Grandmaster Galen, some nameless interrogator...none of these options sounded remotely appealing. Kunzite, however, continued to examine his surroundings as much as he could.

And then, they were both seated. Endymion glanced behind him, finding the five armored troopers that had apprehended them standing maybe ten paces back, weapons at the ready. He turned back around, finding the silence so gut-wrenching that he was tempted to say something.

"Um…" he muttered, just barely audible.

"Alright, what's going on here?"

Endymion's eyes went wide, and his head snapped over to look at Kunzite, who was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, staring down the back of the chair in front of them.

"U-uh…" Endymion stammered, shocked into a mild stupor by Kunzite's behavior. Maybe he really did have some convoluted plan to get them out of this? If he did, how could _this_ be it?

"Enough playing around, we're all on the clock, so it's time for some answers," Kunzite continued.

"K-Kunzite…" Endymion said weakly, awkwardly glancing over towards the guards standing behind them. "I…"

"Since this is obviously _not_ an agency operation, despite your half-decent attempts to make it resemble one, and this is obviously _not_ _The Savery_ , you must have some motive behind bringing us out here, so let's hear it, there are—"

"Dammit!" The cushioned chair in front of them shifted a bit, Endymion struck by the clearly feminine voice coming from the occupant. Slowly, it spun around to face the two young men, revealing someone Endymion would not have guessed had you given him a million tries. The blonde beauty, Princess Venus, glared at Kunzite with a pout. "I wanted to have a little fun with it first!" She shook her finger over towards Prince Endymion. "Couldn't you at least keep quiet for a few secundas so I could surprise him?!"

"I'm sure he figured it out a while ago as well," Kunzite said flatly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Endymion was far too confused to feel embarrassed, his gaze zipping back and forth between his general and the Princess.

Venus let a soft little hiss go. "When did you figure it out?"

"Immediately," Kunzite said, sounding almost bored. "The agency sends a dozen foot soldiers to ambush and arrest housewives who try to synthesize imperium in their bathtubs, so they certainly wouldn't send five to take down the biggest black market chemist in galactic history. And they certainly wouldn't send all women."

Venus slowly gave a resentful nod. "Mmm...hmm, what makes you think that they're women?"

"I watched them walk," Kunzite said. "And then you had the single-file docking tunnels, very obviously not something you'd find in a space station like _The Savery_."

"Ah, you're too good," Venus admitted. "I'm not surprised, I suppose."

"Wait," Endymion interjected, finally snapping himself out of the daze he had been stuck in ever since Venus had revealed herself. "Wait, what, what…"

"Now, what's this all about?" Kunzite said, glancing over to the Prince. "You have no idea how difficult the next few days could be for all of us, we need as much time as we can have."

Venus turned her focus over to Prince Endymion now, giving him a bit of an incredulous look. "You know, Endymion, I never thought you'd make much of a royal, but...becoming the most notorious criminal in the galaxy before you turn twenty?" She tilted her head a bit to the side. "That took some time before I could bring myself to believe it. Do you suppose your bassinet got switched at birth, and the real Prince is out there somewhere on Earth, working a night job to put himself through vocational school to become a speeder mechanic?"

Endymion straightened up a bit, giving her a caustic look. "I...what's going on here?" He pointed over towards the Princess. "I barely know you, we don't...how did you…"

She put her palm out towards the Prince. "I know, there's a lot to unpack."

"If...look, if I've been caught, then so be it, but I don't see any reason why you feel the need to...to...mock me for it," he said, face wrinkling a bit. "I've done nothing to you, we've been in the same room as each other maybe a handful of times in our lives! I doubt we've spoken a hundred total words to each other before today!"

"Mm," Venus grunted. "Well, you haven't been caught. Not _yet_ , anyway. I mean, you've been caught by _me_ , but...that's not who you're afraid of now, is it?" She put her hands up behind her head, seat tilting back.

Endymion blanched at this confusing string of sentences. "You're on the council," he said matter-of-factly, pointing towards her. "I saw you at the fundraiser, my father mentioned you, how can—"

"Ah, yes, the fundraiser," Venus recalled. "Fascinating individual, that Cronus. Hides right in plain sight." She reached up towards her nose, tapping the tip of it. "Like, you know how we can't see our own noses even though they're right in front of us? It's like that, it's as if Cronus figured the best way to avoid the agency was crowd up right next to their nose, and ten years later, they haven't even sniffed him!"

Endymion slowly turned his head to give Kunzite a befuddled look, still trying to piece this bizarre interaction together. Kunzite, however, seemed quite focused on getting some straight answers out of the beautiful blonde young woman, and just sat there in stoic silence as she amused herself.

"Life is so much better when you don't trust anyone," Venus continued. "You just approach everything with skepticism and doubt, and things will work out for you. Ten years, that guy operated a galactic imperium smuggling ring, and all the might of the agency didn't touch him. I come on for a few cycles, giving nobody the benefit of the doubt, and just like that, I've got him!"

"Okay…" Endymion squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head back and forth. "Can you start making sense?! What's going on here?!"

She smirked, but gradually leaned forward towards the two young men across from her. "Alright, alright." She waved her right hand over towards the armored troopers standing behind Endymion, who took the prompt to begin removing their helmets. The Prince turned around, watching all five of them reveal themselves to be attractive blonde females, the likes of which you would certainly not expect to find forming the entirety of an agency strike team.

"Your general is correct," Venus stated. "This is not an agency operation, and there's a possibility we can keep it that way. I'm sure that's in your best interests." She shrugged. "It's not because I like you, though, believe me. Truth be told, I'd actually rather enjoy handing you over to your father, since I heavily suspect you've had to bury Princess Serenity under a mountain of lies over the last year to accomplish all this."

Endymion almost opened his mouth to protest this statement, before catching himself and realizing it would be best to not give information away right now. He settled for giving an annoyed grunt and glancing away, crossing his arms over his chest haughtily.

"I've been hunting the man that they call Tuxedo Mask for many cycles now," Venus stated. "Ever since you started operating back on Earth. I actually saw you, I think it might have been one of the first times you were using that absurd disguise." She grinned, leaning her head back. "Was enough to plant the idea in my head, but I just didn't have the resources to actually find you. I suppose that's to your credit, I had to force my way onto the agency's council to actually track you down."

"Why do you care about any of this?" Endymion asked. "What does any of this have to do with you?!"

"I want to work with you," Venus answered. "You see, Prince, I have a need for money. And it just doesn't seem fair to me that you get to reap all the rewards of falling ass backwards into a lifetime's supply of the most valuable substance in all the universe, or...however you managed to come across this imperium strain that has the whole galaxy's panties in a bunch."

"You have an awful lot to say about things that you know very little about," Endymion said tersely.

She rolled her eyes. "My mistake. Of course, you must have found it digging around in your backyard. Some time in between getting your specialty 'Humid Evening Outdoor Musical Festival' cape embroidered with rubies and interviewing a new squadron of maids to be tasked with daily rearranging of your bedroom ornaments, of course, you were out on the palace grounds, drilling."

"Either way," Endymion grunted. "Is this some kind of joke? You...you dress up as agency goons, you arrest me, take me out here to...to wherever this is, all so you can work with me?! H... _how_ would you even work for me?! How, exactly, do you think that would work?! What is it that you think we do?!"

"Look, Prince, if you're so repulsed by the idea, I can always just drive you two over to _The Savery_ and let the wheels of justice do what they will," Venus offered. "You should consider yourself lucky that this is the solution that I prefer."

"Oh, I feel _very_ lucky right now," Endymion said as dryly as he could manage. "A handful of minutas ago, I had—"

Kunzite gently placed his right hand onto Endymion's left shoulder, managing to pre-empt the bitter tirade that was brewing. "What do you propose, Your Highness? We're listening."

Venus sighed. "Thank you." Endymion gave Kunzite an odd look, instinctively assuming that his 'Your Highness' was addressed to him before applying context, but then reluctantly gave Princess Venus his attention. "In any case, it seems to me that you've got the supply, and you've got the means to synthesize the supply, so where I come in is distribution."

"We have distribution," Endymion protested. "In fact, we have everything we need."

"Had," Venus corrected. "This morning, you had everything you need, maybe. But believe me, that little operation wasn't done without the cooperation of Cronus, who is probably scrambling to flush all the evidence and find a way to pin everything on you as we speak."

Endymion's mouth fell open slightly. Without thinking, he moved to stand up, held back only by Kunzite grabbing onto his shoulder. He was vaguely aware of a flurry of movement behind him as Venus's lieutenants brought their weapons to bear. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't take it personally," Venus said, gesturing slowly for Endymion to sit back down. "I made him an offer that he had to take. Help me grab his chemists, and I'd give him the opportunity to cover his tracks." She laughed, gesticulating over towards the wall to her right. "He's probably out there right now, setting file cabinets on fire and waiting for an agency strike team to kick down his door. Funny to imagine, when you think about it."

Endymion seemed less than amused, however, as he settled himself back down, expression clouded with frustration and anger.

"Your Highness, once Cronus realizes that you were bluffing, he's going to consider you a loose end," Kunzite warned. "He won't accept having someone out there who knows about his black market dealings, and he will do whatever it takes to tie off that end."

"You let me worry about that," Venus said simply. "I'm a survivor. I'll make sure that Cronus understands that the best way to continue to fly under the agency radar is to leave me alone. Now, as I was saying, I'm prepared to sell your product. And I can offer you something nobody else in the universe can." She propped her right elbow up on the right armrest of her chair, putting her hand up to her chin. "The opportunity to sell black market imperium on Venus."

Endymion, obviously already in a bad mood at hearing of Cronus's willingness to sell him out, scoffed at the offer. "There _is_ no black market on Venus! It's impossible to sell down there, you should know that better than anyone! You can't sell so much as a single shred without it being detected by those probes! If we try to sell there, we're all going to end up in cells on _The Savery_!"

"Under typical circumstances, you'd be correct," Venus admitted, nodding. "Believe me, I know about the state-of-the-art spying apparatus we've built to precisely regulate imperium usage." She grimaced. "Also very familiar with how it's put us waist-deep in debt. Very effective, though. Not an ounce of illegal product gets through without being discovered and followed through until everyone involved is brought to justice."

"And yet, here you are, proposing we all just march to our doom," Endymion said colorfully, becoming more irritated with each passing moment.

"I'm both a member of the Venus royal house and I sit on the high council of the Galactic Imperium Agency," Venus said expansively. "Come now, Prince, think about who you're talking to! A little bit of subterfuge on my end, and those probes will be reporting what _I_ tell them to report. Then I just have to balance it with the agency, and you've got yourself the perfect crime."

Endymion looked less-than-impressed, still visibly fuming.

"We'll be the only ones operating on the planet," Venus continued. "And believe me, the agency has taken full advantage of the fact that they have no competition. Prices are significantly higher compared to any other planet or moon. Means we can charge more. Plus, since Venus is entirely dependent on the spying apparatus and probes to report illicit imperium, the odds of any dealers ever getting caught are virtually nil."

"And who's going to sell it? You?" Endymion asked caustically. "You plan on running around in the streets all day?"

"I have tens of thousands of loyal agents throughout the population of Venus, just waiting to follow my orders in whatever capacity I need them," she stated. "I've thought my end out, Prince, and I'm ready to begin immediately." She put her hands out towards Endymion and Kunzite. "Oh, one last thing. Given the nature of our current encounter, I'm going to have to insist on a particular payment structure."

Endymion slowly lifted his left hand up to his face, rubbing at his left temple, eyes squeezed shut in frustration. "You have _got_ to be kidding me," he muttered.

"You'll still make money," she assured him. "But I'm taking ninety percent of the profits."

"You want...ninety percent, for distribution?" Endymion said listlessly, too beaten down to be appropriately irked by the demand.

"No, I want ninety percent for distribution, _and_ not turning you into the agency like I could very easily do," she answered coolly. "So, how are we feeling?"

"Ooohhhh…" Endymion groaned, not even attempting to hide his utter disdain for the decision she was currently forcing upon him.

"Come on, guys," Venus urged. "Don't make me do my job. Between you and me, I don't want to do my job. It sounds really boring. And those cells on board _The Savery_? Not a place anyone wants to grow old."

"I think we can work something out," Kunzite said, after a final glance over at his Prince seemed to prove that he wasn't going to even attempt to pretend he was happy with this sudden whirlwind of arrangements being thrust upon him. "We'd be happy to have you distribute our product."

"Oh, yes, ecstatic," Endymion grumbled. "Why, let us just head on over to our laboratory, filled with all the substances, chemicals, and equipment that we need to synthesize imperium, and we'll have that ready before you...oh, wait a moment! For some reason, we—"

Kunzite again placed a calming hand onto Endymion's shoulder, turning to look at Princess Venus as he tried to keep the Prince under control. "...what His Highness is trying to say, is that we will need some time to procure equipment and resources for our procedure. Previously, Cronus was handling that end of things. We won't be able to start immediately."

She nodded. "Well. If I can be of assistance, let me know. The sooner we can get started, the better. But yes, I understand, and I have some patience. Just not an infinite amount."

"You...you've gotta be _freaking_ kidding me…" Endymion continued to mumble under his breath. "Insane, insane, this is just _insane_ …"

"I suppose that's all," Venus said, her cheeriness seemingly holding an inverse correlation to Endymion's irritation. She waved her hand over towards her lieutenants, still closely observing the conversation and ready to protect their Princess if the need came up. "Aphrodite will drop you off wherever you like, and we'll be in touch."

"Do you have _any_ idea, what you've done?" Endymion hissed, massaging his forehead just above his right eye and looking down at the floor. "What you've—"

Kunzite, in one quick motion, got to his feet and placed his hand into the crook of Endymion's arm, lifting him up into a standing position. "We'll be in touch," he said hurriedly, turning around and trying to pull Endymion away from Princess Venus, taking him towards the docking tunnel one labored step at a time.

"I'm excited to get to work with you."

Kunzite stopped mid-step, turning his head around to look at Venus, who was now leaning back and resting her legs up on top of the desk. She was, indeed, seemingly looking over at the Earth general. Tentatively, he pointed his right hand's index finger up towards his face, wearing a quizzical expression.

"You're a legend down on my planet, you know? You should hear the stories they tell about those two years you spent down there," Venus continued, looking quite pleased with herself.

"Mostly exaggerated, I'm sure," Kunzite said, trying to sound dismissive.

"The men...and the women," she added.

It took about half a beat for all of Endymion's simmering rage to seemingly melt into oblivion, his posture straightening up and expression rearranging into one of intrigued confusion. He slowly turned to look at Kunzite, who had blanched a bit, before quickly gathering himself and beginning to lead a considerably more pliable Prince over towards the docking tunnel.

"Right," Kunzite grunted. "We should get going."

As Kunzite led Endymion away, the Earth Prince couldn't stop himself from casting a look over his shoulder at Princess Venus, for the first time during this entire interaction possibly wanting to hear what else she might have to say.

"

Endymion couldn't take his eyes off of his most trusted guardian, who seemed determined to ignore his unbreaking gaze, as the two sat right next to each other in the two middle seats of the small ship, the same which had taken them to meet with Princess Venus, this time lacking the four armed guards in the corners. The two were effectively alone, with the cockpit of the ship cut off from the body thanks to a thick steel barrier, giving them some privacy.

"And the women?" Endymion blurted out, breaking the extended silence that the ship interior had been sitting in for the better part of the last few secundas.

"I'd really prefer to not discuss it," Kunzite said stiffly, looking over to his left towards the floor.

Endymion just continued to stare his general down, eyebrow raised quizzically.

"And we have more important things to think about right now," he added. "So, anyway, when we get to the palace, it's imperative you not leave until you get word from me. In fact, I'm going to fabricate an anonymous threat against you. Just enough to warrant additional security for a few days."

Endymion sighed, bristling at the reminder of how his situation had taken such a drastic turn for the worse in the last few minutas. He sulked, leaning back heavily against the backrest of his chair. "We had _everything_ running like clockwork, and—"

"Your Highness, please, just hold it in for a little bit!" Kunzite pleaded. "Just...let's get to the palace first and secure things. We're not safe yet. Cronus certainly must consider us loose ends right now, whether or not we're in agency custody."

Endymion's expression darkened at mention of his former business partner. "And what's he going to do about it? What, he's going to just...kill the Crown Prince of Earth? That's a realistic scenario in your mind?!"

Kunzite winced, considering his words carefully. "It...it can't be ruled out. We've seen first-hand that Cronus is capable of a lot that nobody would have guessed. In his mind, right now, we currently pose nothing but risk to his operation. Let's assume he'll take whatever action he needs to in order to mitigate that risk."

Endymion released a growl from the back of his throat, working very hard to honor Kunzite's request to bite his tongue until they were in a more secure location.

"So, once we land, I'll start doing everything in my power to figure out what we're up against and what our options are. And, I'll look into acquiring a new lab and the necessary equipment to start our operation up again."

Endymion twisted his body around towards his general. "Are you...you do realize how bad this is, right? Do you understand the magnitude of what we've lost today? That lousy bitch may as well have killed us both—"

"Your Highness, please!" Kunzite hissed. He threw a quick glance up towards the steel door up to the ship cockpit. "And yes, I know, this is hardly ideal. I'm just as displeased as you are. This is absolutely the exact sort of thing I wanted to avoid."

Endymion settled himself back into his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. "Thank you."

"But I can't do anything about that now," Kunzite said. "There's no point in dwelling on the situation we had this morning. Now, I just have to do everything I can to keep you alive and free. Just...please, work with me for the next few days, and we'll find a way out of this. Whatever you think of your situation right now, it's better than sitting in a cell on _The Savery_ , being accosted by your father."

Endymion grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"

"How is that possible?" Cronus demanded, leaning forward over his desk, looking down at his communicator disc. "Are my sources inside the agency really that worthless?"

"That's not the issue, sir," Ptilol replied, her voice causing the audio wave hologram above the disc to expand and stretch about. "There's no chance that the Crown Prince of Earth would suddenly be apprehended and charged by the agency without news of it leaking to one of your informants. It's simply not possible for something that big to happen off the radar. He was taken from your facility on Deimos yesterday, he definitely would have shown up in their system by now."

"Again, how is that possible?" Cronus continued, disbelieving of how good the news seemed to be.

"I don't know," Ptilol admitted. "You'll be the first to know when we get some sort of confirmation that he's shown up back at the Earth Palace, since I'm sure that's where he'll go at some point. But at this point, I feel very comfortable saying that, for one reason or another, Prince Endymion isn't being charged with anything and isn't on _The Savery_. Furthermore, there's no indication that the agency is planning any sort of investigation into you or suspects anything of you. So if you're waiting for your door to be kicked in, it seems like it might not be happening."

Cyprine finally couldn't hold silent any longer, leaning up against the wall right by the door to the office. She quickly stomped over to the desk. "We saw the Prince and his bodyguard taken out of our Deimos facility in cuffs by agency troopers!" she insisted. "I saw it personally! This has to be an expertly-handled coverup of some kind, it's not as if he...escaped en route, or something like that!"

"Even if he did, our informants in the agency would have heard about that by now," Cronus pointed out. "No, this...it's as if this whole thing was some sort of elaborate prank."

"A prank?" Cyprine repeated. "By who?"

"I'm not saying it was a prank, just that it's as if it was one," Cronus said dismissively. "Thank you, Ptilol, please let me know as soon as Prince Endymion shows up." He tapped the center of the disc, then steepled his fingers underneath his mouth, thinking. "Well, that makes everything rather complicated."

"Does it?" Cyprine asked. "What's changed? We know for a fact that an agency council member is aware of our black market imperium activities, and could, at any moment, have the entire might of the G.I.A. crash down on us with an investigation that will put all of us behind bars until the heat death of the universe!"

"Yes, she could," Cronus acknowledged, turning around to look at the back wall of his office, staring at a spot between the multiple certificates and diplomas. "And yet, she's not."

"But she _will_ ," Cyprine warned. "We need to keep covering our tracks, as quickly and as definitively as possible."

"Let's consider the alternative," Cronus said, suddenly spinning around. "Just for a moment."

"You can't be serious," Cyprine said, looking rather stunned. "We have a guillotine hanging over our necks, and you want to wait for the blade to start moving before we get out of the way?"

"Cyprine, please, remember why I do this." He pointed up towards the ceiling. "I am currently sitting on the largest black market imperium distribution chain in the galaxy, one I have built up over ten years, and I have _no_ supply for them to sell! This network will collapse absent imperium. If production stops for so much as a single cycle, everything gets put at risk. I thought it was possible that I might be able to use my agency informants to learn where the Prince was keeping his supply when he told their interrogators, then perhaps beat the agency in a race to get to it, but now, that imperium may as well be a in another galaxy for how accessible it is to me. So, I have to open myself up to other possibilities."

"You're not suggesting what I think you are, are you?" Cyprine questioned.

"So, suppose we wait for the Prince to pop up on our radar. Presumably at the Earth Palace. Once we have some degree of confidence that...for some reason, the events of the last couple days were not what we thought they were, we reach out to him. Tell him that we've...moved his laboratory to our installation on Earth, and that we're ready to start working again." Cronus nodded thoughtfully, pacing around behind his desk now, reaching up to adjust his glasses. "Treat the last couple days like the minor hiccup that it ended up being, and pick things up right where we left off."

Cyprine sighed, falling down heavily into the chair in front of Cronus's desk. "Sir, how can we even consider continuing working in black market imperium when a council member knows?! We shouldn't even have this discussion until we tie off that loose end."

"Princess Venus was smart enough to figure me out in a few cycles, meaning she's smart enough to make sure that I go down if anything happens to her. We handle the loose end by staying away from it and hoping it remains dormant. Meanwhile, by bringing Prince Endymion back into the business, we tamp off that potential loose end by giving him a reason to not be a problem for our operation."

Cyprine looked downright shocked. "Cronus, this isn't like you! We've stayed alive for the last decade because you're careful and you don't take risks! The Cronus of last year would have burned everything to the ground and disappeared underground by now!"

"Cyprine!" Cronus snapped warningly. "That's enough!"

With a reluctant unease that spoke to her lack of faith in her boss's decision making in this moment, Cyprine settled herself back down, absentmindedly playing with her ponytail.

"Remember why I do this," he insisted. "It's not every day that a quadrillion cred business opportunity falls in your lap. If I were to, as you put it, burn everything to the ground, it would be another ten years to build myself back up again, at least. How much longer do you think Saturn is going to last without our intervention?"

"We've made enough money and had enough of an impact on the war," Cyprine countered.

"I will not have Saturn be a barren husk by the end of it," Cronus said. "I want it over with inside of a year. And the only way we can do that is if we keep the business running. Maybe I've been good at mitigating risk over the last decade. But now, Cyprine, _now_ is the time to invite a little risk, if the alternative is to start over from scratch." He put his palm down on the desk surface. "We contact Endymion as soon as we have confirmation that he's back in the palace."

Cyprine gave a curt little nod, standing up. "And suppose he's figured out that you gave him up to the agency?"

"Oh, I'm sure he'll understand, it's...this is a business," Cronus replied.

"

Endymion gave the leftmost wall of Kunzite's private chambers a frustrated, feral punch, drawing a loud thud from the wall and a hiss of pain from him. He recoiled back, hopping back towards the bed across the small room, holding his right fist in his left hand.

"Your Highness, please," Kunzite said quietly as Endymion winced and groaned, keeling over a bit.

"Sorry, sorry," he muttered, easing himself down into a sitting position on the bed, right next to his general. "I just...how did we get _here_?! How did this happen in one day?! You know, I was really starting to like Cronus too, he seemed like he genuinely cared, and he just...sells me out the moment things get a little difficult. I'm making tens of billions of creds for him, and I get thrown out the window like it means nothing!" He crossed his right leg over his left. "And...that stupid girl, poking around in things that are none of her business, doing things that she has no understanding of the consequences of, all with that shitty smile on her face like this is just a game!" He shook his head. "Now we're stuck selling a small fraction of what we were before for...for an insignificant amount of money, all because of what _she_ wanted, nevermind anything else about the situation!" He wildly gesticulated over towards the door out to the hallway. "And now I've got half a dozen palace guards following me everywhere I go, practically under house arrest, just waiting for the assassins to come take their shots at me, all the while, my wife won't stop calling me in a panic over a...vague and non-descript threat against me that my father probably gets twice a day on average...am I the _only_ person involved in any of this who is capable of acting in a professional matter?!"

With that final outburst, Endymion leaned back slightly, seemingly having managed to burn out a little bit of his frustration and anger. Slowly, hesitantly, Kunzite reached over and placed a comforting hand on the Prince's shoulder, unsure of what to say.

Fortunately for him, the communicator on Endymion's belt began buzzing. Lazily, the Prince looked down at it, grabbing it after a couple beats.

"Kunzite, if this is Serenity again, I'm handing the communicator to you," he said, lifting it up in front of his mouth and threading the earpiece from it into his ear. "If I can't get her to calm down with everything I've already told her, then you need to try." He tapped the center of the disc. "Prince Endymion speaking."

Almost immediately, his forehead knitted, Kunzite taking note of his sudden change in mood.

"Excuse me?" Endymion asked, scowling as he listened to the other side of the call. "You want me to _what_?!"

"

The door to Viluy's office was harshly thrown open, getting the small, white-haired woman to jump to her feet in shock. Prince Endymion stormed in, looking comical as he held his arms down stiffly at his sides, almost as if he was trying to appear larger than he actually was.

"Oh, Your Highness!" Viluy said, taking a reflexive half-step back at his aggressive approach. "You should have told the receptionist—"

Endymion placed his knuckles down on the desk surface that Viluy stood behind, staring her down. "We're falling behind on our quota?" he said in mild disbelief. "Did I hear you right on the call earlier? Was that what you said?"

"Well...we are," Viluy said, glancing up to see Kunzite enter the modest workroom and shut the door quickly behind him. She sidestepped over to a small whiteboard against the back left wall, assorted blue scribbles along the surface. She tapped her fingertip against the drawing surface three times in rapid succession, and the board was wiped clean. "I mean, don't misunderstand, Your Highness, we're not blaming anyone, we understand that circumstances were a little...irregular the last few days."

"Irregular," Endymion repeated dryly. "Is that your word?"

"Either way, the...the distribution network still requires a certain amount of supply, so assuming things have been resolved on your end, um...your new laboratory is ready for use. I can show you to it as soon as you would like. We've constructed it to match the initial laboratory as closely as possible, so you two should be able to ramp up and get going pretty much immediately."

Endymion's mouth was hanging open in stinging disbelief. "Are you...do you realize that I got _arrested_ three days ago?! I...where is Cronus?! I want to talk to him."

"Not here," Viluy said, giving Kunzite an uneasy glance, meekly clasping her hands together in front of her waist. "He's...I'm actually not entirely sure where he is, perhaps you could try to contact him—"

"I was trying to call him the whole trip here, he won't answer," Endymion hissed, reaching down and yanking his communicator off his belt, holding it out towards Viluy and shaking it towards her.

"Well, he's a very busy man, I'm sure he'll get back to you as soon as he can," Viluy said. "I...I don't really know very much about any of this, I was just told to...to make sure that you knew that the lab had been moved for security purposes. I mean, this is better for you, right? You don't even have to leave your planet to get to the lab."

Endymion was about to continue accosting Viluy, but Kunzite gave him a yank on the shoulder. "Me and The Prince will be right back," Kunzite said hurriedly, jerking his head towards the office door. Endymion's cheeks practically expanded out in a exasperated rage, but as Kunzite went over to the wooden exit, he relented and followed.

The two stepped out into the sparsely-populated hallway, Kunzite giving a quick glance down both sides before leaning in towards Endymion. "Your Highness, let's think this through."

I am thinking it through!" he snapped. "Can't you put this together?! _He_ sold us to the agency to try to save his own skin, and now that we've managed to worm out way out of it, he thinks we can just...go back to the way things were like nothing happened!"

"Yes, and...maybe that's not such a bad idea," Kunzite whispered. "I'm going to vet this, heavily, trust me. You won't set foot in that laboratory until I examine every single bit of it, but...this would solve all of your problems."

"How do you figure?" Endymion asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We won't have to worry about Cronus viewing us as loose ends if we go back to working with him. He obviously places a high value on the assets he gains through us, we can leverage that," Kunzite explained.

"Yes, until the _next_ time someone jumps up and scares him into handing us over to the agency," he growled.

"Meanwhile," Kunzite continued. "Now we don't have to worry about a lab, or supplies. We'll be able to give Princess Venus what she wants immediately, and consistently. We get to go back to making the same money we were before. Everyone wins."

Endymion winced, as if physically hurt by this final phrase. "Oh, goodie, everybody wins, I'm so happy to help the guy who—"

"Your Highness, this is for the best," Kunzite insisted, quickly checking down both sides of the long white hallway again. "Just...give me some time to investigate this. But it really is the best-case scenario given the last couple days. We should take it."

Endymion frowned deeply, not particularly convinced by his general's suggestion.

"Come on," Kunzite urged. "We're going to have a very hard time fulfilling Princess Venus's demands any other way. This will be a huge burden off our backs."

The Earth Prince huffed, looking down the long hallway, almost as if he was trying to find some sort of third option to take that would solve his current list of issues while also granting him some catharsis. After several long beats, however, he shrugged. "Fine."

"Right," Kunzite said. "We, uh, we should tell Viluy to pass along the information about our arrangement with Venus." He made to

"Why?" Endymion questioned immediately, turning on Kunzite harshly. "We're doing it regardless of his opinion of it. Doesn't matter what he thinks. Why does he need to know?"

Kunzite faltered a bit, confused by Endymion picking this particular point to push. "Well, it's not as if...he'll know soon enough by the amount of chemicals we're using."

"And if he has a problem with it, he can come and voice it to me, but I'm _not_ asking permission, because I don't need it," Endymion grumbled. "Not a word about Venus, that's an order."

With that, Endymion rounded past Kunzite and pushed open the door back into Viluy's workroom, leaving Kunzite standing there in no small amount of confusion.


	36. Added Value

Chapter 36: Added Value

Endymion absentmindedly batted at the two dangling little orbs with his right hand, sending them clacking into each other haphazardly, bouncing off the metal wall to their left, and generally swinging about at either end of the thick white rope that held them together. It didn't really occur to him how much he resembled a cat right now, mindlessly playing with the most basic of toys.

The two wooden balls, each painted to resemble the Earth and Moon respectively, and each hiding the precious treasure of the first two uncias of hyper-pure refined imperium in recorded history, had fortunately survived the sudden and unplanned laboratory movement. Endymion had looped the rope around an unused knob on the side of one of the vats, and seemed oddly occupied with it for the moment. An annoyed frown sat on his face as he played with the simple toy.

Behind him, on one of the many stainless-steel counter surfaces in the lab, was a rectangular crate, filled to near-capacity with clear cubes of pure refined imperium. Kunzite, hands on his hips, grimly looked up at the door at the south end of the catwalk above him.

"Your Highness, just let me handle this," Kunzite said, not turning to look at his charge as he spoke. "Obviously, circumstances forced us to do this, and I'm sure Cronus will accept that as long as we present it respectfully, but he's not going to like it."

"Circumstances," Endymion repeated, saying the word as if he found it poisonous in his mouth. "Makes it sound as if this was something that just _happened_ , nothing that anyone could have done to avoid it." He looked over at his general, an expression of brooding on his face. "The random universe just bounced around its subatomic particles in chaotic patterns, creating the circumstance of me getting blackmailed by Princess Venus, and Cronus had nothing to do with it."

"Be that as it may, Your Majesty, we're best off at this point maintaining our amicable relationship, and that requires a delicate touch sometimes," Kunzite said sternly.

Before the conversation had the opportunity to actually heat up, the door above opening drew both of their attentions. Quickly, Cronus entered, purposefully marching across the catwalk, glancing down towards his two business partners down below as he moved. Several steps behind him, Tellu followed.

Endymion leaned up against the side of the vat, turning to look over at the far wall as Cronus took the staircase down to the floor level of the laboratory. Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest, trying to straddle that line between casual and imposing.

"I've been told there's a problem," Cronus said as he got to the floor, approaching Kunzite, peering past him towards the Prince. "You're asking to take a portion of the refined product for yourself?"

"It's not for personal use," Kunzite responded.

"Regardless, the terms of our deal were quite clear. All product refined in my laboratory, using my equipment and materials, would be handed off to me. I trust you're aware of this," Cronus said. "So, explain yourself."

"It's a requirement for this operation to continue," Kunzite said evenly, glancing up at Tellu, who loomed large behind her boss. "Another distributor approached us, they want to sell our imperium. They gave us no choice in the matter."

Cronus's expression wrinkled. "You would use my infrastructure to create product for a competitor? Unacceptable."

"This distributor possesses the knowledge and means to turn all of us in to the Galactic Imperium Agency. And they will, if they don't get our product. It's in our best interest to work with this distributor, that includes you."

"Don't assume you know what's in my best interest," Cronus said warningly. "Part of my arrangement with you is that I get to corner the market. Competing sellers who can match my product's quality drive down demand and can force my prices down."

"This distributor won't be competing with you, their plan it to sell on Venus only. Nobody else sells imperium on Venus. It will have no effect on you," Kunzite assured him.

Cronus stared over at the box of imperium cubes on the counter space next to Kunzite, then turned to look at the Prince, who was now giving a combative stare over towards the pharmaceutical kingpin.

"Princess Venus, then," Cronus muttered under his breath. "That's her endgame?" He dropped the stern parent facade for a moment, blinking rapidly. "Curious."

"We don't know all of the details," Kunzite added. "But it's imperative that she be given what she's asking for."

Cronus's forehead wrinkled, turning his focus back to Kunzite. "You should have brought this development to my attention. If Princess Venus is a liability to our operation, then my organization needs to take measures to protect ourselves from her."

"We are protecting ourselves by giving her what she's asked for. If she has a vested interest in our operation continuing, she has motivation to not turn us in," Kunzite pointed out.

"Regardless, I should have been consulted," Cronus remarked sternly. "These are my assets you're using to synthesize."

"It wouldn't have mattered what you thought."

Kunzite visibly winced, pursing his lips as Endymion entered the conversation.

"What was that?" Cronus prompted.

The Prince of Earth pushed off the vat that he was leaning on, standing up to his full height. "We didn't have a choice, so your input wouldn't have changed anything. It was either this, or a prison cell. And that goes for you as well."

"Even still—"

"Maybe you should ask yourself, why were we there? What caused us to be in that position? Why were we placed at the mercy of Princess Venus, blackmailed into doing what she wanted us to do?" Endymion slowly started to round towards Kunzite and Cronus. "I don't recall getting to have any input in _that_ sequence of events."

Cronus, unflinching under Endymion's subtle ire, reached up to adjust his glasses. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on!" Endymion snapped, getting Kunzite to flinched back. "We both know it, Cronus, you gave us up to Venus to save yourself! She told us. So I don't see how what we have to do to save ourselves is any of your business, when you put us there!"

Cronus sighed. "I was put into a difficult situation. I believed you and Kunzite would be arrested regardless. I acted in self-preservation. Any logical person would have done the same."

Despite his reasonable tone and logical argument, Endymion was only further enraged by his attempts to justify himself. "I've made you hundreds of billions of creds! Nobody else in the galaxy could have given you what I have!"

"Your Highness, I—" Kunzite desperately tried to intervene, but Endymion had been angered beyond acting reasonably.

"And you've shown me exactly how much value you place on all that, so honestly, Cronus, I don't particularly care what you think about our arrangement with Princess Venus. In fact, how about you just consider yourself extremely lucky you've retained our services after turning us in?" He moved in closer to Cronus, venting off several days worth of pent up frustration. He pointed over at the box of imperium. "If this is the worst that's come of your actions, you're doing very well."

Cronus, despite being given a window to reply, opted to just stare down the Prince, his distaste for his tone quite evident without the use of words.

"Now, we're the ones supplying you with imperium, and we're the ones refining it. This is how things are now. If you don't like it, then feel free to blame yourself."

With that declaration, Cronus shot Kunzite a quick little side glance, as if giving him an opportunity to speak up. When the white-haired general simply kept his lips tightly closed, Cronus turned away. Serenely walking back over to the iron spiral staircase leading up, his clicking footsteps the only sound to be heard in the lab. Both Endymion and Kunzite followed his movements as he trotted up to the catwalk, then crossed it over to the lone door out.

After what seemed like an eternity, Cronus was gone, the door shutting behind him. Kunzite immediately leveled a glare over towards the Prince, who seemed entirely unrepentant.

"I'm quite sure there was a better way to handle things than that," Kunzite muttered under his breath as Endymion went over to the box. With a couple taps of the Prince's finger, the bottom of the box started to glow a light blue and hover a tiny bit off the counter surface.

"What does it matter?" Endymion asked, an immature stubbornness in his voice. "Not like he can do anything about it."

"Maybe," Kunzite said. "That doesn't mean we should dare him to."

"He'll live," Endymion said ruefully, pushing the box of imperium off the counter, watching it slowly glide down to the floor. "You know I'm right, right?"

"I specifically asked to be allowed to handle Cronus today, and I really believe—"

"I'm not going to just let him come in here and talk to us like that!" Endymion snapped, swinging his arm up to point at the door. "He turns us in to the agency, and then thinks he can act as if nothing has changed a couple days later?!" He shrugged. "Not standing for that. And again, it doesn't matter. He needs us as much as we need him."

Kunzite grimaced, again giving a look up towards the door.

"

"We had the wall decorations alternating before, I really liked it like that," Serenity said, pointing up towards the east-side wall of Endymion's bedroom, where assorted artifacts and pieces of art were spread out across the pearl white surface. Three uniformed men of above-average builds were standing at her side, next to a few large boxes, judging the best, most preferred way to re-decorate the bedroom now that Princess Serenity was moving back in.

"Okay, so, we just have to sort of...slot everything back in?" the leftmost one asked, pointing up towards the wall. "The gaps are still there, I think, shouldn't be so bad." He turned to his two assistants. "Why don't you two start loading up the closet with her dresses?"

As the duo turned to comply with the request, the primary door swung open, Endymion entering and immediately turning about to take measure of his room.

"Any problems?" he asked, hands on his hips as he observed the two assistants lift up one of the boxes and begin to shuffle over towards the closet.

"Not yet," Serenity said, still slightly terse and just a hint of bitterness in her smile towards him. "And there won't be, will there?"

"Sweetie, _nothing_ could motivate me more to make sure that there are no problems between us than the last few cycles," Endymion said smoothly. "Everything's fine."

"We won't be disturbing any of your things, obviously, Your Highness," the lead mover commented. "You have nothing to worry about."

"So," Endymion said, sidling up behind Serenity. "Now that you're back, you want to do something to celebrate?"

"Why don't we...feel things out for a bit first?" Serenity turned around to face her husband. "Make sure we actually have something to celebrate."

"Well, let's at least go down to the main hall and have lunch with my father," he suggested. "He'll be thrilled to see proof-positive you're back."

With that, he bent down a bit and scooped her up bridal-style in his arms, Serenity going a bit limp to allow him to pick her up into the air.

"

Wrapping her arms around her torso slightly, Viluy quickly ran up the small boarding ramp into the B class starship, the windy conditions on the tarmac urging her to find the shelter of the ship interior as soon as possible. A few beats after she entered the main chamber of the modestly-sized ship, the ramp retracted into the floor beneath her feet and the ship began to close up. She looked around the main compartment, then turned her focus entirely towards the cockpit as Cronus entered from it.

"Afternoon," Cronus said, watching the ship's entrance seal. "Your communicator is turned off?"

"Yes," Viluy responded. "I really don't see why we couldn't have this meeting in your office, or mine."

"I just want an additional layer of security right now," Cronus stated. "Endymion knows where our offices are, he doesn't know about this ship."

Viluy quickly sidestepped over to a bench built into the right side of the ship's wall, sitting down on it. "Are things really that bad? I was under the impression he was still coming to work every other day like before."

"He is," Cronus acknowledged. "But he has taken things personally, I was wrong to assume that he'd understand the bigger picture. And it's driven him to act spitefully."

Viluy pursed her lips, tapping her fingers on the bench spot to her left. "Well, as long as he's being paid, I imagine that—"

"I prefer to avoid risk, if at all possible," Cronus stated. "And the Prince now represents some degree of risk."

"Lot of risk going around right now," Viluy muttered. "Princess Venus out there, doing who knows what, knowing our secrets. It's not what we're used to."

"Right," Cronus said. "We've been careful and cautious for the last decade, and now with the finish line in sight, suddenly it feels as if we're just waiting for someone to swing the axe." He leaned up against the wall next to where Viluy was sitting. "I think we need to try to eliminate some of the sources of risk. Do what we can to take control of our situation as much as possible."

"Eliminate Princess Venus?" Viluy asked. "That's hardly my area of expertise, if that's what you're referring to."

"No, no, not...not that. Well, maybe, but that presents us with an entirely new set of problems." He turned to Viluy. "Have you been studying the footage from the laboratory? How well do you think you understand their process?"

"Oh, I couldn't help but be fascinated by it, so I've spent virtually every free moment studying it. It's definitely a complex process, not something you can trust to just anyone. Dare I say, probably quite dangerous and volatile as well. But, yes, I have confidence in my understanding of it."

"Do you believe you could execute the formula in the laboratory immediately, should the need for it arise?" Cronus asked.

"I would need a competent assistant. But, yes, I could do that. Maybe the first batch or two will be a punt, but I understand their process and their methodology." Viluy nodded.

"Viluy, you understand it would be disastrous if our supply of imperium were suddenly cut off. If Endymion and Kunzite were suddenly unable to synthesize for us, and it turns out that you can't copy their formula, even for twenty days, our infrastructure falls to pieces. Only say that if you're completely sure you have what you need."

Viluy folded her hands together and rested her chin on top of her knuckles. "I'm sure, Cronus. I've reviewed footage of their process dozens of times, I understand it. Not just the what, but the why."

"Because it has to be you," Cronus continued. "It can't be me, I'm far too busy with my other commitments to spend every other day in the lab. And there aren't any other people in the galaxy with the level of required expertise who would work for me."

"I can do it," Viluy said. "I just...I don't understand, do we just...fire them? I don't see how that would work, that'll just invite more risk. And we don't have any raw supply."

"I'm handling that side," Cronus said. "Here's what I need from you now." He steepled his hands together and pointed them at Viluy. "Go to my summer house on Triton and increase security. You're not to leave, and you're to be kept under constant protection indefinitely. Do whatever you like while you're there, but stay secured. I'll contact you with further instructions soon."

"What's the cause for paranoia?" Viluy asked.

"I just want to make sure you're kept out of harm's way," Cronus stated. "We should go now, I'll take you there." He turned around and went up to the cockpit.

"Um...Cronus," Viluy said, getting to her feet. "Thinking about it, if you're proposing what I think you're proposing...our only solution will be to get rid of the Prince and his bodyguard."

Cronus paused just before stepping into the front of the ship, then turned around to face his lead scientist. "I agree with that assessment."

"Well...is that really something that we'll be able to get away with?" Viluy asked, sounding just a little uncomfortable. "N-not to say that you haven't already thought about all this, in fact I'm sure you have, but...well...how?"

Cronus bowed his head slightly. "That's my concern. Your concern is simply keeping yourself safe until the work is done."

"

Endymion, mouth agape slightly, looked at the several hundred ship pieces scattered about the floor of the hangar, admiring the symmetry and organization of the parts. From the massive hull pieces to the tiny electronic circuitry, everything seemed to be in clear and identifiable order. Kunzite was standing right next to him, holding up a device about the size of his finger, with two long wires extending out from either end.

"You...you pulled apart your whole ship?" Endymion asked incredulously. "By yourself?"

"I didn't know who to trust," Kunzite pointed out, giving the device in his hand a little shake. "And I was correct to."

"How did…how long did this take you?" Endymion asked, still looking rather shocked.

"It doesn't matter, Your Highness, what matters is that my fears have been confirmed," Kunzite said in a hushed whisper. "This is a tracking device, a transmitter. It didn't show up on any of the scans, so I had to find it manually. It required a complete deconstruction of the ship, but I found it. It's currently inactive. If I had to guess, I'd say it's somehow programmed to activate at a certain trigger. Maybe the ship executing a jump."

"What made you think to do this?" Endymion asked, scratching the back of his head.

"I was already suspicious, but...did you notice that Viluy hasn't shown up at the facility on Earth ever since our confrontation with Cronus? I checked, she hasn't been in her office at all."

Endymion swallowed, putting aside his shock at his general's little deconstruction project. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything."

"Not by itself," Kunzite admitted. "But it got me thinking. If Cronus wanted to replace us. That is, continue the imperium operation without us, what would he need?"

Endymion stared at the tracker in Kunzite's hand. "Our raw supply. Our formula. And someone with the expertise to follow our formula."

"Very few of those, and even fewer that Cronus could get. In fact, probably just one. Viluy has the education and experience to execute our formula, as well as the ability to understand the why, not just the what." Kunzite nodded slowly. "So what if Cronus decided he didn't want her to be anywhere near us, in case we started to suspect she would be used to replace us? Suppose he decided to keep her somewhere far away and safe?"

Endymion shrugged. "He doesn't have our formula, so—"

"Oh, even you don't believe that," Kunzite admonished. "He's probably got a hundred hidden cameras in the lab. I mean, it's always been a slightly uncomfortable reality. We're working in his laboratory, if he wants to monitor us there isn't much we can do. If he wanted to know our process, it'd be trivial for him to get it. And then, he just needs to get our raw imperium."

"Uh-huh," Endymion said. "So he plants a tracker onto your ship in the hopes that you'll lead him to it." His frown became more pronounced. "And in his mind, what happens then? He steals it, puts Viluy to work in the lab, and tells us to just...not come in anymore?"

"Obviously not," Kunzite said. "We'd be a massive loose end. If this is actually his plan, then he must intend on disposing of us."

The Prince exhaled out of his nostrils. "He can't honestly believe he can pull that off," he muttered.

"I would suspect that he does," Kunzite countered. "And it can't be ruled out. He's a very wealthy and intelligent individual. He wouldn't do this if he didn't have good reason to believe he could pull it off." He gestured towards the Prince with his right hand. "This is why I said it was important to be diplomatic with Cronus, now he thinks we're a liability."

Endymion nodded, mulling things over silently.

"In any case, I found the tracker, so we'll have bought ourselves a bit of time. But our options are limited. I'm sure Cronus won't be making himself available to us either. Clearly there's some sort of...spy or double agent working for the palace, we'll have to figure out who could have planted this thing."

"We need a permanent solution," Endymion reasoned. "You get rid of that tracker, in a few days they plant another one. Or find some other way to find our supply, that's not going to do us any good."

"If we just...stop coming into the lab one day, then he'll view us as a massive liability. I doubt you'd be interested in holing up inside a safe room for the rest of your life," Kunzite said.

"Very few people in the galaxy who have the ability to synthesize imperium properly," Endymion said under his breath. "And he must agree, since he's protecting Viluy." He pursed his lips. "So. We see to it that we're his only option for chemists."

Kunzite sighed. "I'll...I'll look into that, but it's very likely that it won't be possible. If Cronus wants her protected, then she'll be as protected as anything in this galaxy." With a grimace, he forced himself to the next leg of the conversation. "Your Majesty, as unacceptable of a solution as it may seem, there is...there's always the agency."

Endymion silently turned towards Kunzite, wearing a caustic look.

"It's certainly not optimal, but...we could make a deal with the agency. With the things that we know and have, it'd be...it'd be a good deal."

"Kunzite, come on," Endymion said in a low growl. "You can't be serious. Never the agency."

"It's just, it's going to be very difficult to find another way out of this," Kunzite said. "At least if we go to the agency, you'll...you'll survive."

"Never the agency," Endymion repeated. Kunzite nodded tiredly, having already resigned himself to that particular answer before he had even asked the question.

"I'll, um, I'll start putting the ship back together." Kunzite said, clearly not looking forward to figuring out how to execute an assassination mission against a target who was guaranteed to be protected and was anticipating an attack. "And dispose of the tracker."

Endymion suddenly swung his right hand out, tapping the back of his fingers against Kunzite's chest. "Wait. Why don't you put it back in the ship?"

Kunzite raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I've just had an idea." He crossed his arms over his chest tightly. "How long before you have to make an imperium run?"

"Six days," Kunzite answered immediately.

Endymion sighed. "Well, we'll need some help. But I think I might have a way to get Viluy out into the open."

"

Kasios heaved a great sigh, studying the single slip of paper he was holding up in front of him, almost hoping that the text before him might change on a closer examination. Of course, no such transformation took place, and he was left to digest the rather sobering facts on them.

He glanced around his massive bedroom, of which he was currently the only occupant, suddenly feeling quite small thanks to the surroundings dwarfing him. Not a feeling he was used to experiencing.

The door was thrown open, the elder Serenity entering energetically. It was almost infectious, her obvious excitement, but Cronus still couldn't manage much more than to spin his chair around to face her.

"So, she's back? For real?" she asked. "She hasn't suddenly packed up and left?"

Kasios simply nodded his head. "I had lunch with her several days ago, seemed happy. Had lunch with her again yesterday, still seemed happy."

She bent down a bit, putting her hands on her knees. "Oh, good! I...I mean, I assumed you called me over here so we could celebrate, but...I mean, I can't help it, there was this tiny part of me that was a little concerned that maybe she had run off again."

Kasios blinked a few times, head tilting down towards the purple carpet beneath his feet.

"I-if you're looking for answers on...what caused all this, then...I'm sorry, but I truly don't know. She hasn't told me any more than she's told anyone else." Serenity straightened back up. "You know, if you go back a few generations, there is some...I don't want to say mental illness, nothing that bad, but...just a little off. Little odd behaviors, and it did occur to me that…"

Kasios sighed, getting Serenity to stop her rapid-fire speech and take a more close-eyed measure of the High King of Earth.

"Um...Kasios, you don't look particularly happy," Serenity said slowly.

"I'm not," he acknowledged. "I'm not here to talk about your daughter, although obviously it's good that she's back. There's been a...recent development. Well, maybe not all that recent, but...it's gotten to the point where I feel obligated to not keep it a secret anymore. You've got a vested interest in this, so I thought I'd start with you."

Serenity's smile vanished off her face, and she quickly closed the distance between her and the High King. "What's the matter?"

"I've made some decisions in the last decade," Kasios stated. "Decisions that I...I have to stand by, given the information that I had at the time. But, because of those decisions, well...there are some problems with the Kingdom right now."

"

Cronus stared down at the disc-shaped communicator on his desk, fingers nervously tapping at the wooden surface next to it.

And just like that, it buzzed to life, vibrating and chiming to get its owner's attention. He grabbed at it, lifting it up to his mouth and quickly pressing the center button.

"Go ahead," he ordered.

"Looks like it worked, transmitter started broadcasting about eight secundas ago. We tracked through the jumps, and then it started moving real slowly out in the middle of deep space. Best we can judge, it got out there, docked onto another ship. Just docked less than a secunda ago."

Cronus nodded. "Coordinates?"

"X is four thousand ninety-five point one, Y is thirteen thousand eight hundred and two point fifty-one, Z is four hundred seventy-one point eight. If my assumption is correct, the ship he's docked to is following a linear path, so it'll be easy to track."

"Eustace, get your ship within range of his current location," Cronus instructed. "This will require precision on our part."

"I'm already moving, sir," Eustace replied. "Got Viluy with me, we're ready."

"Let's go over it one more time," Cronus said. "The moment Kunzite leaves, you jump to where he was and attempt to locate this ship. Make sure there are no other ships in the area, and then take the shuttle, by yourself. Take as long as you need to, but inspect every single location on the ship for any sort of traps or bombs. Once you are confident the ship is secure and safe, Viluy comes over to verify that the imperium is genuine, meets purity expectations, and that the amount is sufficient. Viluy, please check all of it manually, the last thing we need is to carry this out and then find out our supply is insufficient for our operation."

"Got it, boss," Viluy responded through the transmission.

"Once we get confirmation, we need to secure Endymion and Kunzite, make sure they do not leave the premises," Cronus continued.

"

"He's down in the laboratory," Tellu chimed in on the group conversation. "Me, Cyprine, and Ptilol are on the floor right above him, ready to go."

The three young women were sitting around a small circular table in one of the break rooms, huddled up around a single communicator that had its volume turned down significantly. Ptilol kept glancing behind her, keeping an eye on the entrance, making sure nobody unwanted walked in despite the sign denying entry they had put just outside in the hall.

"Take them seriously," Cronus instructed. "Particularly Kunzite. And remember, you can't kill them, under any circumstance." He cleared his throat. "I trust that everything will run smoothly in my absence."

Cyprine sighed. "Can't you postpone the meeting? You really should be on the line and present for this, it's so important."

"Some things, yes, but not this. You know how our stockholders can be," Cronus replied. "So, I'll be going dark now, I probably won't be able to answer calls. But everyone knows their role. When I get back, I'll expect that Endymion and Kunzite are being held captive and that we've secured their imperium supply."

A gentle beep indicated Cronus had dropped off the group conversation.

"Viluy, make sure you keep communicating," Ptilol asked. "This needs to go perfectly."

"

Endymion slowly poured the beaker of blue liquid into the funnel, barely glancing upward as the door above his head noisily opened. A few footsteps on the catwalk gave further evidence to someone having entered, and as soon as the small quantity of chemicals had been dispensed into the large vat, he turned to look up. Cyprine had her hands on the red railing, looking down at the Prince.

"Shouldn't Kunzite be here by now?" she asked. "Something the matter? Where is he?"

"Everything's fine," he replied flatly. "Sometimes picking up the product takes longer than expected."

"Um...is this going to be a problem for us?" She looked around the large laboratory. "How much of this can you do by yourself?"

"We have a system, it's fine," Endymion said, turning his focus over to a small collection of dials in the side of the vat. "I've done this over a hundred times now, I'm pretty familiar with it."

Cyprine looked like she wanted to say something, but simply turned around and returned from where she had entered, boots clicking on the metal catwalk.

Endymion, after watching her depart, glanced down at a black wristband on his right arm. He twisted his arm around to look at the bottom side of it, seeing a single tiny little green indicator light on it.

"

Viluy crammed herself into the single-person shuttle, sealing it up behind her. A single control console in front of her was really all there was to speak of in the extremely-simple little ship, serving no real purpose other than to act as an escape pod.

"It's not going to be a problem," Viluy said. "It's going to take me some time to make sure that we have enough imperium to be completely independent, so as long as Kunzite shows up by then, it's fine."

"You said the ship you found was massive," Ptilol countered.

"Oh, absolutely," Viluy answered, tapping her earpiece before engaging the thrusters on the shuttle and beginning to detach it from the main ship. "It's a huge freighter."

"It's gotta have more than enough, then," Tellu pointed out. "Why would they have a ship that big if they didn't have enough to fill it?"

"Well, that's what I'm going to confirm," Viluy stated. "Eustace checked the ship, it's clean. And he said he found the storage chamber, filled with sealed barrels. Said he found an open barrel and did a purity scan, it's the ninety-nine percent stuff alright. No ships in the vicinity either, it's all looking very clean."

"Well, I'm happy things are going great on your end, but I don't like this. Kunzite is Endymion's general, basically follows him around everywhere. That's his life. I just feel like there's something weird going on," Ptilol continued. "What does he have to do other than get back to his Prince as fast as possible?"

"Well, it's moot until I confirm the imperium, so just wait for my call," Viluy said.

"

Endymion took note of his wristband, this time observing that a second green indicator light was now dimly shining from it. Smiling to himself, he glanced up towards the red door leading out, and then began to slowly lift a half-empty sack full of white powder up and began to spill it out into a trough.

And then, the door crashed open, Tellu barging in with a loud bang and quickly looking down to find the Prince of Earth. He pulled the sack back and set it on the ground, realizing that it was time for the show.

"Nononono!" Cyprine spilled into the room a few steps behind Tellu, arms out towards her larger colleague. Tellu, however, had already gone over to the railing.

"He's over a minuta late, what's going on?!" Tellu snapped, scowling down at Endymion.

"Traffic?" Endymion suggested, letting a hint of snark into his voice now. "Who knows."

" _You_ should know, he's your guardian!" Tellu countered, Cyprine slowly putting her arms back at her sides and giving a tense look over towards her green-haired companion. "We expected him here by now, and we have an agreement about the work done in this lab, so why isn't he here?!"

Endymion sighed, reaching up to take the respirator mask off of his forehead and toss it to the floor in front of him. "Why is it so important to you?" he asked.

"Because—"

"Is it because you need to kill us?" Endymion asked.

Tellu's mouth clapped shut. Cyprine let out an oath under her breath.

"You need him here so badly, because you have to kill us both at the same time, since we're loose ends?" Endymion continued. "Is that it?"

Tellu, with a growl, vaulted over the railing down to the ground level. Cyprine glanced out the open door and nodded, prompting Ptilol to enter as well. Both of them followed Tellu down, the trio of girls quickly advancing on Endymion.

The Prince, in the handful of beats he had before the confrontation turned physical, reached down and gave his wristband a squeeze.

"

Kunzite immediately flicked a series of metal switches on the dashboard of _The Falconeri_ , activating the jump engines and setting it on a pre-plotted course, as soon as his wristband began to flash green. Within less than a secunda, the ship had gone from a dead float out in the middle of empty space to a violent jump forward.

"

"Where is he?" Tellu demanded, pressing the tall, thin frame of Prince Endymion back into the southern wall of the laboratory, all pretense having been dispensed with.

"So I'm right, then?" Endymion asked. "Is that the plan?"

Tellu reared back her right hand's fist and slammed it into the concrete wall next to Endymion's head. "Where. Is he?"

"How do you plan on killing the Crown Prince of Earth and getting away with it?" Endymion grunted. He was quickly answered by Tellu wheeling him around and pushing him into a steel cabinet. With a dull thud, he slammed into it and crumpled halfway to the floor.

"We're asking the questions," Cyprine said, having recognized the need for a more direct approach as well. "Tell us where he is, tell us how to get into contact with him, right now. Or we start making this hurt."

She and her twin went to either side of Endymion and lifted him up by his shoulders.

"You guys aren't very good at treating your assets well," Endymion muttered, worming out of their grip.

"You're no asset anymore," Ptilol taunted. "You don't have anything of value now. We've got your product, we've got your formula, we've got your replacement. Now you're just a liability that needs to get trimmed. So, tell us where Kunzite is, and this won't hurt any more than it has to."

The three girls kept him surrounded, as much as it would have been pointless for him to try running away.

"You're awful confident in yourself," Endymion said. "Sure you're not being a little premature?"

Tellu whipped her fist right into Endymion's right eye, knocking him to the concrete floor and drawing a loud gasp.

"Where is he?" Tellu continued to question, placing her right foot on Endymion's back and pressing down. "This just gets worse until you tell us what we want to know."

"You want Kunzite?" Endymion gasped out, trying to push himself to his feet. Tellu relented on the pressure on his back after a moment, letting him slowly unfurl himself. "You want to know where he is?"

"I'm going to break your fingers next," Tellu warned.

"I need my fingers to do the work that your boss needs me to do," Endymion said, getting up to his full height.

"Not anymore," Cyprine taunted. "Now, where is he?"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Endymion said with a smirk.

Cyprine and Ptilol glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes, as their confusion over Endymion's seeming level of comfort with this supposedly helpless situation began to manifest. Bluster was one thing, but the Prince seemed awfully comfortable with facing down his imminent execution.

"X is four thousand ninety-five point one.Y is thirteen thousand eight hundred and two point fifty-one."

After the initial surprise of Endymion offering up coordinates passed, Cyprine was the first to realize that the numbers he was reciting were familiar. She looked at Ptilol, who was just putting the pieces together herself. Tellu was last, starting to understand the implication as Endymion gave the final coordinate.

"Z is four hundred seventy-one point eight." He shrugged. "Somewhere around there."

Almost as if on cue, the communicator in Cyprine's back pocket began emitting audio. A woman's voice. All three of Cronus's lackeys jumped.

"Hey, we have a problem."

"

Viluy was holding a jagged piece of crystal in her hands, kneeling on the floor, a tiny scrap of paper on the floor in front of her. She was surrounded by several open black barrels, each one filled with clear crystals. Eustace, a large, dark-skinned man with a shaved head, was standing by her side, keeping watch.

The main storage room of the massive ship was indeed lined with endless shelves of barrels, towering towards the ceiling, space being utilized with maximum efficiency to give the room a rather cold and clinical feeling. However, despite the seemingly promising find, Viluy was frowning.

"This definitely isn't imperium," she said. "Not even close. I mean, the first barrel, the one that was left open, that was, but...I've opened others, and these are basically...the kinds of things you'd use for decoration—"

"Get out of there now!" Cyprine immediately ordered.

Viluy didn't need to be told twice, leaping up to her feet. She and Eustace hadn't gotten two steps before a piercing alarm sounded off from a tube-shaped device hanging from Eustace's belt.

"Proximity alarm!" he shouted.

"

 _The Falconeri_ came out of its jump, the decoy freighter clearly visible in front of him. Kunzite pushed forward on the thruster lever, sending his personal ship careening right for the middle of the hull. In a matter of beats, he was just a couple hundred haplouns from the side.

He reached up over his head and pulled down hard on a red handle. An industrial mining laser, modified to slot into a housing built into the top of _The Falconeri_ , roared to life and began burning a destructive beam right into the broad side of the ship. Within fractions of a beat, it burned right through the hull.

"

They barely had enough time to realize what was about to happen. Just enough time to understand what the endgame of this little game of misdirection was. The left-side wall was ripped open violently, and everything in the room was pulled hard towards the opening.

Viluy made to scream, but her ability to make sounds ceased as soon as the massive storage chamber was exposed to space. The air she had in her lungs was pulled out, tearing through the tissue of her lungs, making sure that her final few beats of life were painful as well.

She was thankfully spared the full brunt of asphyxiation, as being rapidly yanked towards the opening in the side of the ship got her to slam her head against one of the loose barrels, knocking her out. As she closed her eyes for the final time, she was just barely able to make out _The Falconeri_ , turning away from it's work and jumping back in the direction it had come from.

"

The communicator had gone silent. Cyprine stared down at the disc, a look of horror and shock on her face. They thought they might have been able to make out the start of a scream, just a few beats ago, but that was the only clue to what might have happened. Ptilol's mouth was hanging open, and she continued to look at the communicator, hoping that it might suddenly give something more than just dull static, but each passing moment was another reason to believe the worst.

Slowly, all three women turned to look up at Endymion, who looked quite happy with himself, giving a knowing smirk. His posture slacked a bit. And though nobody noticed quite yet, the armband on his left wrist was populated with a third green indicator light.

"Yeah," he said.

"

END OF ARC THREE

A/N: If you've made it this far, congratulations, you are now done with arc three of five of my story! Thank you so much for sticking with me for this long, and I hope you are liking what you have read to this point.

So, obviously writing has slowed a bit lately, and I can only blame work taking more of my time, as well as a few other commitments. Hopefully I can get back to at least one a week one I start arc four.

Other than that, again, thank you for reading my story, and hopefully you were able to hold on through that last portion. :) Arc four coming soon!


	37. The Rooster Prince

A/N: Back from my break! Was a bit longer than my previous arc breaks, but I got caught up in binging _Better Call Saul_ and had to deal with assorted personal life things. Anyways, everyone buckle up.

"

START OF ARC FOUR

Chapter 37: The Rooster Prince

Kunzite sat in silence out in the hallway, studying his surroundings. In truth, there wasn't much to study, with the Earth Palace being kept in such impeccable symmetry that everything flowed together in a way that made it feel like you had seen the whole palace, even if you had only seen part of it. Someone with more of an eye and appreciation for art might have found the designs around him more interesting, but Kunzite was not one to dwell on things of little meaning like that. Especially not in moments like this.

The door to his immediate right opened, and a tall man with black hair and a scarred face leaned out towards him. "He's ready."

Kunzite stood up and quickly entered the room, stepping past the beckoner and looking inside. A massive, opulent bedroom, though the details were quickly passed over by the young man as irrelevant as he focused his attention on the man sitting in an ornately-carved wooden chair just half-a-dozen paces into the room. King Kasios, wearing a casual tunic, had his left leg resting on his right knee, looking Kunzite over.

"You seem taller than the last time I saw you," Kasios said. Kunzite bowed deeply towards the Earth King. "Good to have you back, Kunzite."

Kunzite stood at attention in front of Kasios, waiting to be prompted to say something.

"Relax," the King ordered, Kunzite quickly obeying. "I'm glad we were able to get you back. I was worried that after two years on Venus, you might decide you were having too much fun and not want to leave."

"Fun with what?" Kunzite asked blankly. "Of course I was always going to come back. I was there for training. My loyalty lies with you and the Earth Kingdom, Your Highness."

Kasios laughed, pointing over at Kunzite and looking up at the scarred man looming behind him. "Fun with what. You hear that?" He swallowed. "Well, my understanding is that things went extremely well while you were over there, so I'll cut straight to the point. The only thing that's really left is for you to decide is what you want to do with your life. Understand that your commitment to serving an Earth Royal as a general and guardian is not something you can just break later, so the time for thinking things over is now. Do you still want to become Prince Endymion's general?"

Without hesitation, Kunzite answered. "I would like nothing more, Your Majesty. I have worked tirelessly to become one over the last several years, and I would be honored to be named an official general to the Prince."

"It won't be easy," Kasios said, pointing over at the man behind Kunzite. "Just ask Achilles about the things he's had to do in service to me over the last two plus decades."

"I didn't choose to pursue this job expecting to handle things that were easy," Kunzite said. "I am prepared for any challenge that being in the service of Prince Endymion might bring."

"Then we will make it official tomorrow," Kasios stated. "I've seen and heard all I needed to see from you."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Kunzite said.

"You won't be his only general, we're planning on bringing on a few more. You'll figure out how to work with them to best serve the Prince." Kasios stirred a bit in his seat. "But I anticipate that you'll be taking a senior role over the candidates we have targeted, so prepare for that."

"Of course, Your Highness," Kunzite answered.

"And there's one other thing." Kasios grimaced. "Um, something I couldn't divulge until you were sure you wanted to do this, confidentiality reasons. So, there's one consideration that I need to instill into you as you go forward. What I'm about to tell you, you must keep secret."

Kunzite nodded.

"We can't have this getting out, but...there's one thing with Prince Endymion. Maybe. I don't know yet. Nobody knows yet, but it has to be considered a possibility." He cleared his throat. "Of course, you know what happened to his mother."

"Certainly, Your Majesty," Kunzite answered promptly.

"Right, well...her condition. Obviously, quite rare, and not entirely understood by the medical community. No cure. And, also...possibly, hereditary." He put his hands out towards Kunzite. "Possibly! It's...it's not conclusive or anything."

Kunzite let his stony mask slip, expression reflecting a bit of shock. "P-Prince Endymion has...has he…"

"No, no! Not at all, nothing...no signs. Yet. And we've had him tested, he's come up clean, but that doesn't mean...well, it doesn't mean it can't develop later. So, since you'll be spending a lot of time with him going forward, nobody's in a better position to determine that than you."

Kunzite nodded, firming his face back up, not wanting to let emotion slip in front of the King.

"Now, your directive as Endymion's general will be to serve him above all else, that's how it works. Your number one priority is to work in his interests, for now and forever. However, as King, I'm going to implement one exception. One case in which your orders from me supersede whatever orders you might receive from him."

"I'm listening, Your Highness," Kunzite said.

"I'm hoping this never comes up, and there's a good chance it never will. However, if during your service to Prince Endymion, you notice any indication of degrading mental faculties, mental illness, erratic behavior, or...anything that might be a precursor to dementia. Any sign that he's inherited what his mother suffered from. You bring it to me. That's regardless of whatever he wants you to do. Even if he orders you to not, you tell me. It's possible that we could take steps to mitigate his condition if we catch it early, or if push comes to shove, perhaps even cryogenic storage until a cure can be developed."

"I understand," Kunzite said. "I'll observe him carefully and bring any troubling signs to you immediately."

"I have no intention of stepping down from the throne anytime soon," Kasios continued. "But eventually, I will pass it along to Endymion. And if he were to...begin to succumb to dementia after becoming King, then the damage to the Kingdom could be irreversible. So if this is a problem, we need to catch it before then. Catch it while I'm still able to take measures to protect the Kingdom." He leaned back. "So, let's call this...Order One. An order that supersedes whatever orders might come from your charge. No exceptions."

"Sounds good to me, Your Majesty," Kunzite said, bowing. "Order One. I'll remember it."

"I doubt it'll amount to anything," Kasios said assuredly. "I'm sure you'll start to notice signs before he turns twenty, in almost all cases it manifests by then. I certainly won't give up the throne until after that either way." He waved his arm towards the door. "You may go."

Kunzite nodded, turning away and marching from the room.

"Thrilled to have you aboard," Kasios added.

"

Kunzite let out a mighty sigh, adjusting the collar of his uniform as he prepared to open the side hatch to _The Falconeri_. He stared at the inside of the hull where the hatch would fall open, trying and failing to not think about what he was doing. If he spent more than a few beats doing that, he'd surely stop everything immediately, realizing it was all completely insane. And at this point, it was a little late for that.

As much as the plan made sense when Endymion described it, to the point where Kunzite was actually quite impressed by it, there were still countless points in it where the Prince could easily be killed, on purpose or accidentally, and Kunzite was signing off on putting him in those situations. It was antithetical to his job to allow him to be put in so much as one dangerous situation. Truth be told, he didn't even know if Endymion was alive right at this moment.

He reached forward and pressed a red button in the wall, getting the hatch to quickly pop open and descend down to the ground. The ship opened up onto a view of the eastern side of the Earth installation of Galen Laboratories. Briskly, Kunzite stepped down onto the concrete floor that made up the tarmac. Moving purposefully, again steeling his brain against actually thinking about his actions as he undertook them. Right now, nothing good could come of thinking about things.

"

Ptilol and Cyprine both jumped and nearly shrieked at the sound of the door creaking open up above, quickly scrambling to peer up the iron staircase. When they found Kunzite standing at the top of the steps, it took some time for them to change their reactions from ones of terror to utter confusion.

With a spread out, powerful gait, Kunzite took the steps down to the two twins, who didn't even reach for their holstered weapons until he had nearly cleared all of the fourteen steps down to them.

"H-hey!" Cyprine yelled, frantically backing away as she brought her plasma pistol to bear. "Hold up!"

Kunzite slowed to a halt at the bottom of the steps, slowly glancing back and forth between the two women, offering a quizzical shrug as they pointed their guns at his chest.

"W-what are you doing here?!" Ptilol demanded, her shock giving way to her rage rather quickly.

"To work," Kunzite replied flatly. "We're due for another batch." He pointed towards the door on the opposite side of the small antechamber, which lead down to the laboratory.

"...you...you can't…" Ptilol stammered, shaking back and forth, fighting to keep steady enough to keep the weapon on the Prince's guard. "You...you killed…"

"My understanding is that Cronus still expects the synthesized imperium on schedule. Has that changed?"

Cyprine struggled to find the words, fighting with a series of syllables that formed no words in any known language. Finally, she stepped to the side as far as she could. "A-alright! Get down there! G-go!" She jerked her head back over her shoulder. Ptilol moved to the wall opposite her sister. Kunzite took a couple steps forward before being halted.

"W-wait!" Cyprine suddenly interjected, shuffling back to the door and fighting with the lock while trying to keep her eyes and weapon on Kunzite. After several tries, the steel bolt mechanism slid open and Cyprine was able to take a few steps out onto the catwalk. "Come here!"

The white-haired general complied, slowly pacing out into the laboratory's walkway. As soon as he cleared the threshold, he looked down to his right. It took considerable restraint for him to not express relief at what he saw.

Endymion looked quite alive and well, seated on a small metallic chair in the middle of the lab, leaning back and crossing his right leg over his left. He gave a brief look up at his guardian before resuming his blank stare at the wall, giving Kunzite just enough time to notice his black eye. Kunzite had to work to not overreact to the wound, fighting a natural instinct to spring into action at the first sight of his charge being in danger. All in all, given the stunt they had just pulled, a black eye was pretty tame.

Right in front of the Prince was Tellu, leaning up against a counter, a pistol in her hand. She was just now realizing that Kunzite was present, and was surprised enough to take her focus off Endymion for a moment.

"Where'd you find him?" Tellu asked, cocking her head towards the general.

"He just showed up!" Cyprine shouted. "Just...walked in. Can you keep an eye on him?"

Tellu nodded, her face wrinkling suddenly. "Is...that's a gun on his hip?!"

"Huh?!" Cyprine said, frantically looking down at Kunzite's waist. "O-oh!"

"Search him!" Tellu ordered.

Casually, Kunzite reached down to his waist and gripped the butt end of his weapon between his thumb and forefinger, slowly removing the weapon from his belt and dropping it to the ground. As Cyprine quickly approached him to pat him down, he caught Endymion looking up to shoot a smile at him.

"

Cyprine and Ptilol could barely suppress a shudder as Cronus slowly came down the steps towards the antechamber, his light footsteps and small stature still conveying tremendous menace.

The two twins stood there, waiting for their boss to offer his input on recent events. He was not quick to do so, satisfying himself with glowering at his two underlings for quite some time. Neither was sure of how long this went on. But both were smart enough to not say anything.

"Where is he?" he asked, his voice low and lethal.

"I-in the lab," Cyprine answered. "Tellu's keeping an eye on him and...Kunzite."

"Kunzite's here?" he continued, tugging on his sleeves.

"Y-yes, sir, he...he just walked in," Ptilol chimed in. "Maybe a minuta ago."

Cronus looked up at the door out to the catwalk, locked tightly shut, then back to Cyprine. "Why?"

"I...he just keeps saying that he showed up to...to work, to synthesize," she answered. "The...the Prince, too, a broken record, he keeps saying they need to...they need to keep the current batch going." She shrugged. "Almost as if they have...it's like they have no understanding of what's just happened."

"I'm sure they do," Cronus replied. "Cyprine, describe to me exactly how things happened from your perspective. Please."

Cyprine blinked a few times in rapid succession. "Um...everything was going according to plan, except...well. Kunzite didn't show up when we expected. Endymion just said he was...running behind, he didn't know why."

"You didn't find his absence suspicious?" Cronus inquired, narrowing his gaze at Cyprine.

"Um...more and more as time went on," Cyprine said nervously. "But we were already checking the ship, the...the freighter, we found the imperium! We...we thought we had the imperium."

"Thought?" Cronus repeated.

"Um...Kunzite...they lead us to a decoy freighter, it...it had some raw product in there, but...it was just enough to trick us. But we didn't know that until Viluy got onto the ship." Cyprine wiped at her forehead.

"It didn't occur to you that something might be wrong when Kunzite didn't show up?" Cronus asked. "That maybe it would be a good idea to remove Viluy from a potentially dangerous situation?"

"We didn't think it was dangerous!" Cyprine said, a hint of panic in her voice. "We had...had every reason to believe that freighter had the imperium supply! And...I mean, if they had some idea of what was going on, then it was even more urgent for us to locate and take the supply!"

"If they had some idea of what was going on, do you think they'd ever consider doing anything that might lead us to their supply?" Cronus said accusingly.

"If they knew we were going to try to kill them, t-then...I mean, why would the Prince come here to work at all?!" Cyprine asked. "And...and we couldn't have...we had an opportunity to secure their supply! We thought! And that was the most important thing, way...way more important than...than Kunzite!"

"Everything was important," Cronus said, a hissing lethality in his words. "None of this would work unless we got everything. What good would the imperium have been with a loose end who could expose us flying around the galaxy?"

"I...well, surely it's better than _not_ having it," Cyprine protested.

"And now, nothing matters, since we've lost our chemist," Cronus hissed. "You see how that works? You should have aborted the mission as soon as Kunzite didn't arrive as expected."

Cyprine grimaced, leaning forward towards her boss. "C-Cronus, listen, I...I thought about that. W-well, first, I'm...obviously, I feel awful about Viluy. It's really sad, if...I mean, I'm assuming that she...you know…"

Cronus's steely gaze said it all.

"Right, but...hey, we have his formula, right? The...the recipe, we have that, we've got it on tape, days and days worth of footage of their process, so...I can follow a recipe! Just...let's torture them until they tell us where the actual imperium is, dispose of them, and I'll just...I'll take over! Just copy what they've been doing all this time, I...me and Ptilol!" She emphatically gestured over towards her sister. "It's just like a recipe, we can...follow a recipe."

Cronus said nothing in reply to her panicked diatribe, although his firm and angered expression seemed to indicate he didn't think much of her proposal.

"Just...just let us try a few times!" she continued. "We'll do a few test runs, see if it's viable, and...and go from there—"

"They're both in the lab?" Cronus asked, turning his focus over to the door across the room from him. Cyprine nodded, Cronus then raising his hand up towards his blue-haired underling, palm open expectantly. Reading between the lines, Cyprine deposited her plasma pistol into Cronus's hand. Now armed, the pharmaceutical tycoon marched forward, shoving the gun into the waistband of his pants. The two sisters let him pass through the door before following.

The moment Cronus entered the large, underground laboratory, his eyes were glued to Endymion. The young adult Prince defiantly looked up towards Cronus for a few moments, then turned his focus back to Tellu, as if he didn't consider the older man worth more than a cursory acknowledgement. Kunzite, on the other hand, tracked Cronus as he moved across the catwalk.

"Over a decade, I've been working with Viluy," he began, words being punctuated by the dull clink of his footsteps as he came down the stairs to the main floor. "Found her, groomed her, saw to her education. Slowly cultivated her into one of the finest scientific minds in the galaxy."

"I tried to tell her that you'd be upset if the batch fell behind schedule," Endymion called out loudly, ignoring Cronus's burgeoning rant. "They wouldn't listen."

" _The_ finest, perhaps. She surpassed all of her instructors and educators. Surpassed me. The things she would have accomplished in her life, I can't even begin to imagine." Cronus got down to the concrete floor, gradually rounding on the Prince and his bodyguard.

"A tragedy," Endymion said, slowly rising to his feet.

"Sit down!" Tellu ordered, shaking her pistol in Endymion's direction.

"A shame about what you did to her," Endymion added, glaring over at Cronus.

"What I did?" Cronus hissed, flinching a bit as he was taken aback by the combative statement.

"Yes. You did this, Cronus," Endymion stated.

"Sit. Down!" Tellu snapped, rough scratchy voice projecting powerfully and echoing around the large room. Kunzite had to fight the urge to reach over and give Endymion's tunic a tug back down towards the chair underneath him. Nevertheless, despite the ignored order, Tellu's pistol remained benign.

"You did this when you forced me to choose," Endymion growled. "You forced me to choose between my life and hers. That's on _you_. You killed her. You made it clear that one of us had to go. All I did was defend myself. So yes, what you did."

"Prince, you had better—" Tellu roared, halting mid-yell by Cronus putting a hand out towards her.

"I made the only decision I could make," Endymion continued. "If the choice is between me and her, then I'll kill her again every day for the rest of my life. What did you expect me to do?"

"This isn't the first time you've put my operation at risk by arranging for the death of one of my employees," Cronus said, contrasting Kunzite's nervous, stiff, rigid posture with Endymion's large, commanding stance. "Mimete was mine. And I know you were behind her death. I let that one go. Clearly, I made a mistake."

"Oh, you let it go?" Endymion said animatedly. "You let it go? Are you...trying to make me feel sorry for you? Do you want me to admit I should have just rolled over and let you kill me?" He cleared his throat. "Tell me, Cronus, who was it who arranged for my dealers to get ripped off? Who was it who informed the agency about one of my distribution handoffs? Who was it who arranged for three of my dealers to be executed in a back alley?!" He powerfully marched over towards Cronus. In a flash, Tellu was up, dashing over to grab Endymion around the shoulders and pull him back to the ground. He went down in a heap, Kunzite blinking rapidly and beginning to visibly sweat down his face.

Endymion rolled over and got back to his feet, Tellu looming right next to him in the event that he made another threatening action towards her boss.

"And who was it who sold me out to the agency to save their own skin?" he asked. "And you'd try to tell me about what _you've_ let go?"

"What are you talking about?" Cronus asked.

"Oh, please!" Endymion snapped. "As if it wasn't obvious! You did everything you could think of to disrupt my operation so I'd have to come work for you! Don't even try to say otherwise!"

Cronus was perhaps about to reply, but the tense conversation was interrupted by the groan of the lid atop one of the large silver vats being pushed open. Endymion quickly squared up on Cyprine, who had used a stepladder and was now peering down into the large circular container.

"H-hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Endymion said, pointing an accusing finger over towards Cyprine. "That's meant to be sealed until—"

"We need these vats flushed," Cyprine said, pointing down at the contents. "Now."

"Cyprine, are you insane?!" Ptilol yelped, jumping up and grabbing the edge of the lid, yanking it down hard so it was again covering the top, and then frantically re-latching it. "The fumes are toxic!"

"Not _that_ toxic!" Cyprine argued after a short pause.

"You think they've been wearing respirator masks every time the vats are unsealed for the sake of fashion?!" Ptilol pointed over at Endymion and Kunzite. "Come on, use your head!"

"W-whatever, whatever, I…" Cyprine looked down at the Prince. "Dump this vat."

"Well, we certainly have to now," Endymion growled. "You've contaminated it." He pointed at Cronus. "I'm sure he'll just be _thrilled_ about you wasting over a thousand libras."

Cronus certainly didn't look thrilled, eyes darting back and forth between Cyprine and Endymion. Though he seemed quite happy to allow things to play out without his direct intervention.

"It's not going to matter by the end of the day," Cyprine insisted. "We're going to make a batch and prove just how disposable you are, regardless of your little stunt tonight."

Endymion stared at the thin blue-haired woman, and then started derisively laughing. "You're making a batch? Did I hear that right?"

"You're not special," Cyprine said, jumping down from the stepladder. "You're just a guy with a recipe. Anyone can follow a recipe. And I can prove it."

"Oh, a recipe?" Endymion repeated, spittle flying from his mouth and spewing onto the ground as he began to heat up. "You can follow a recipe?! Is that what you think this is?! A recipe?! You think I'm serving up meat wraps for six creds a piece?!"

"The steps never change," Cyprine insisted. "And we've got every step recorded on video." She turned over to look at Cronus. "You watch. You won't be able to tell the difference with the product. I'm capable of doing everything he does."

"Oh, really?" Endymion hissed. "Well, tell me, then, since you seem to have all the answers." He pointed across the lab at the trough. "When the catalyst bed interacts with the imperium in a liquid state, is the resulting reaction protic or aprotic?" He waved his hand up above his head. "Because it's slipped my mind! Oh, and while we're at it, please, enlighten us, which chiral center is eliminated by the reduction performed inside the tube furnaces?"

Cyprine rolled her eyes. "Blah blah, nerd crap, none of that shit matters, no matter how much you want it to!" She advanced on Endymion slowly, trying and failing to intimidate him.

"What enantiomeric reaction is used to determine if the boron crystal fluid possesses the expected acidity ratio in order to spark the reaction?" Endymion continued. "Suppose you get a bad batch of fluid, how would you even know if you don't know that?! And how would humidity affect the final product? How would you adjust the 'recipe' to account for it?" He turned towards Cronus, pointing emphatically at Cyprine. "Is this your plan, now? Replace me with this...this short-order cook? Come on, you're a scientist, you can't honestly believe you'll make it more than a cycle selling the dreck this woman will produce!"

Cronus's mouth curved down into a snarl, his frustration and anger becoming more evident with each passing moment.

"But, if you insist on finding out the hard way, by all means." He marched over towards Cronus, starting to smirk. In short order, Tellu moved to plant herself between the Prince and her boss, but Cronus was quick to rip the plasma pistol in his waistband out and point it directly at Endymion.

"Enough!" Cronus spat.

Kunzite was on the verge of drawing blood with his nails digging into his thigh, his heart churning as fast as he could remember. He was vaguely aware of his face being covered in sweat, and it took all of his willpower to not jump up and try to protect Endymion. He was now just a couple uncias worth of pressure away from having a plasma bolt burn a hole through his head, and here he was sitting there, doing nothing to stop it, condoning it. He had actually helped things get to this point, in fact.

"Go ahead, then," Endymion dared. "Kill me, get the raw product from Kunzite, and then kill him. I've made it very easy for you, and you seem to have plenty of confidence in your ability to somehow get away with it, I'd be fascinated to hear how you plan on pulling that off, actually. Kill us, and leave yourself with a hole in the ground worth tens of millions of creds. Your dealers will have nothing to distribute, your entire distribution chain collapses without us. And if you're fine with that, then you go right ahead."

Cronus, with nothing but a twitch of his finger between him and killing Endymion, continued to just hold in that pose, the barrel of the weapon starting to shake slightly.

"Do it," Endymion taunted. "Throw away a revenue stream worth hundreds of billions of creds, destroy the infrastructure you've spent the last decade building, surely that's how a successful businessman does things. Do it. Do it!" He took a few more steps towards Cronus. "DO IT!"

Finally, Cronus slowly lowered the barrel of the gun down towards his side, an action that seemed to take no small amount of effort. Kunzite released a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding in. Though the thick tension in the room remained for several beats, eventually, the weapon was pointed down at the floor, no longer an imminent threat to Endymion.

"Yeah," Endymion growled.

Suddenly, Cronus whipped the weapon back up, pointing it up over Endymion's right shoulder. He fired off a blast, the energy projectile just barely missing the Prince, instead burrowing into the skull of Cyprine.

Kunzite gripped down on the fabric of his pants so tightly he ripped a small hole in them, so shocking was the sudden turn of events. Tellu flinched, gun arm falling limply to her side as her jaw dropped, instinctively jumping back a bit. As Cyprine's body slumped to the floor in a heap, Ptilol was too shocked to even muster any kind of reaction, just watching the disturbing sight blankly.

Endymion barely even glanced over his shoulder to acknowledge who the projectile had hit, then continued to stare Cronus down. The pharmaceutical tycoon walked right up to Endymion, cheeks practically pulsing with anger.

"Your life will last only as long as I find you useful," he warned through gritted teeth. "Realize that."

Endymion didn't reply, just defiantly smirking back. Kunzite gulped down hard, using almost every muscle in his body to swallow.

And then, Cronus reared back with his right arm and punched Endymion in the face, spinning the Prince back around and sending him to the concrete floor. Endymion grunted, taken by surprise. Kunzite instinctively got to his feet, which got Tellu to again start paying attention. She raised her gun towards the Earth general, which was enough to get him to stop whatever he was about to do.

Cronus's shoulders heaved as he stared down at Endymion, and then slowly he turned around. With a measured, calculated pace, he headed over towards the spiral stairs.

Ptilol was staring at Cyprine's corpse, still battling the initial stages of shock. She couldn't take her eyes off the gruesome sight of her mutilated face. Tellu, slightly further along in processing things, carefully sidestepped over towards the body.

"H-hey," she said throatily, snapping Ptilol out of her daze. "Let's...come on," she whispered, kneeling down and grabbing Cyprine's ankles. Ptilol gave her head a shake, then bent over to grab her shoulders.

"Leave her," Cronus instructed, standing on the first step of the stairs and looking over his shoulders. "She'll be disposed of by them."

Ptilol, looking highly distressed, stared at Cronus, then turned over her shoulder to look at Endymion and Kunzite. However, after a few moments of looking down at Cyprine's lifeless body, she stood up, falling in line behind Tellu as both trailed their boss back out of the laboratory.

"I figured out that riddle," Endymion said, breaking the relative quiet. Cronus, now at the top of the stairs, turned to look down at the Prince. "I figured it out."

Cronus simply walked off down the catwalk, unaffected by the statement. A few beats later, he was out of the room, Tellu and Ptilol close behind, the implied threats and a dead body left in his wake.

Kunzite heaved a mighty sigh, slumping over and pressing his face into the countertop surface. He closed his eyes, body practically shivering as the tension slowly began to leave him.

"You alright?" Endymion asked. Kunzite looked up, seeing that his left eye was now matching his right, both of them blackened by punches.

Kunzite didn't even want to dignify that question with an answer. He instead blinked down hard. "I can't believe I agreed to this," he mumbled under his breath.

"He was never going to do it," Endymion said, sounding almost calm and indifferent. "He can't afford it."

Kunzite grimaced. "What riddle? What...what was that about?"

"Oh, um...awhile ago." Endymion went over to the vat that Cyprine had been poking around in a moment before, pressing a few buttons on a pad on the side of the container. "I asked...I asked Cronus how he was able to lie so much. How he was able to live this double life, constantly lying to everyone around him, how he was able to manage it. And he gave me a riddle. He said I'd know the answer if I could solve the riddle, it was...why does the human eye see more shades of green than any other color?"

"Oh, well...predators," Kunzite said quickly.

Endymion nodded. "Right."

"In...in the ancient times, before we were humans, before they evolved, when they were...what you'd loosely refer to as monkeys, they'd live in the jungle, and there'd be bears and panthers who wanted to eat them. So they had to be able to see them, and in the jungle, everything's green. Grass, trees. So they evolved the ability to see more shades of green, so they could have a better chance of being able to see them coming and not be eaten."

"Yeah," Endymion said with a smile. "Predators." The vat begin to churn. "Alright, I'm dumping this, it's worthless now. We'll have to start over."

Slowly, Kunzite looked over at Cyprine's body. "And we need to...take care of that."

"

 _The Falconeri_ laid dormant up in orbit around the Earth, Kunzite having quickly directed it to zoom up high into the sky as soon as the batch had finished so that he and the Prince could have some time to discuss things in guaranteed private. He was leaning up close to his charge, slowly running a tiny black brush along the skin around his eyes, painting over the darkened, bruised areas with a tan-colored makeup to disguise his wounds.

"Don't rub at them, whatever you do," Kunzite instructed firmly. "It'll rub right off. No scratching, wiping, nothing."

"So you propose you come to my room every morning to do this after my bath?" Endymion asked, eyes closed to allow Kunzite to work with maximum room for error.

"Well, we have to do something. There's going to be no good explanation for you having a couple black eyes, so nobody can see this," Kunzite said. He lowered the brush. "Alright, I suppose that'll do."

Endymion opened his eyes, blinking rapidly. "Given that they were planning to kill us, I'd say getting off with a couple bruises is pretty good on our part. And hey, he had every opportunity to get rid of us, but he couldn't do it. So I was right. Get rid of Viluy, and he's got no leverage."

Kunzite sighed. "For the moment. We've...bought ourselves some time, but don't think this is resolved by any means, Your Highness."

"He had a gun pointed at both of us, in his lab. He'll never have a better opportunity to kill us, and he didn't," Endymion said, standing up and going up to the front of the cockpit, looking out the front window. "I'd say that's pretty definitive on how much he needs us."

"Eventually, he'll decide that he doesn't," Kunzite warned. "Cronus is a phenomenally wealthy man, and one day he'll decide he has enough money and enough revenue from his pharmaceutical work that he doesn't need us anymore. You need to understand that. We need to start figuring out our next move."

Endymion nodded. "Well. If you're saying what I think you're saying, I suppose we'll just have to kill him first."

"I'm sure he'll make that very difficult," Kunzite muttered. "Nigh-impossible, even."

"Well, you weren't given this job to handle things that were easy," Endymion said. Kunzite couldn't help but grin a bit. "And I didn't involve myself in this business assuming it would be easy either. We'll find a way."

"Alright, let's get back to the palace, I...I need to sleep." Kunzite slid into the pilot seat of the ship. "Perhaps more than I ever have in my life."

"This should go without saying, but...Serenity doesn't need to know about any of this," Endymion threw in.

"Of course," Kunzite agreed, engaging the thrusters on the ship and moving to break out of orbit.

"

Six man-sized spacesuits, each one with a small square jetpack strapped onto the back, were zipping around through open space, maneuvering around a collection of barrels floating aimlessly. A short distance away, a massive freighter laid dormant, aimlessly floating through space, a sizable hole in the side of the hull. It was slowly spinning around on a horizontal axis because of the momentum imparted onto it by the initial suction of the hole, and the contents of the room were floating about, having been spewed in all directions. Much of it was no doubt a great distance away, as any velocity that it gained on being ejected out of the ship would never be interfered with unless it directly crashed into something, but a good amount of it remained hanging about.

"That hull breach doesn't look like an explosion," one of the salvage workers said, his voice being sent to every other spacesuit in the area, as well as the Class C ship that the crew had used to get to the sight of the mysterious accident. "Honestly, it looks like it's been bored through from the outside.

"By a laser? A missile?" another asked. One of the salvagers was closing in on the hull breach, preparing to study it and check the interior. "You think this was some sort of space battle?"

"Maybe. We've also got that abandoned ship over there, that didn't look damaged at all."

"It's a mystery."

"Holy shit, guys! I've got a body! Corpse! We've got a corpse in here!" The salvage worker who had just entered the ship called out. "Female, looks like."

"Damn, Leander, you find a corpse and the first thing you do is check under the skirt?"

"Funny," Leander said dryly. "White hair. Head wound, but mostly...pretty intact and undamaged. Frozen, obviously."

"Well, bring it in."

"Will do."


	38. Sins of the Father

Chapter 38: Sins of the Father

Endymion, face buried into his pillow, stirred as Serenity pressed into his right shoulder.

"What did you do yesterday, run a marathon?" Serenity asked. "You know you've been asleep for about...forty minutas now."

"Mmmm," Endymion grumbled, in no hurry to get up despite Serenity's urging.

"Come on, I've let this go more than long enough," Serenity said, nudging him back and forth underneath the blanket. "You need to eat something."

Slowly, he rolled over, inching his right eye open to look around his bedroom. Serenity gave a little shriek, jumping away from the bed in shock. That little action was enough to get Endymion to vault up into an upright position, tossing his blankets to the side as Serenity pointed right at his face.

"W-what the...what?!" she gasped.

"What?! What?!" Endymion asked, reaching up towards his face and feeling around his cheeks with both hands.

"Y-your eyes!" Serenity answered. "What…"

Although the answer was already dawning on him as his brain slowly started working faster, he reached up and grazed his fingertips along the roughened skin around his retinas. He twisted his body around, looking up at his pillow, which was streaked with tan-colored makeup marks. He sighed.

"Ah...huh," he grunted. "Yeah."

"Endymion?!" Serenity snapped. "How did...what happened?"

Slowly, the Prince pushed out a large breath, staring at the makeup smears on his pillow, then turned back to his wife. "I—"

"Endy, you promised!" Serenity snapped. "You said you'd stop lying! Tell me the truth!"

"I haven't said anything yet," Endymion said slowly, posture slouching a bit.

"W-well...just, tell me what happened!" Serenity demanded.

"Um...well," Endymion started, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Serenity, I...I got punched in the face. This…" he gestured up towards his eyes, "...this is what happens sometimes when you get punched in the face—"

"I know!" Serenity interrupted. "I...who punched you?! Why did you get punched?!" Her more sympathetic instincts kicked in and she walked right up to her husband, hands reaching out towards his eyes. Endymion put his right arm up and pushed her back.

"No, no, don't touch them, that's not good for them…" he leaned back slightly. "Um...yeah, I got punched."

Serenity scoffed. "You practically collapsed onto the mattress as soon as you got back last night, I almost asked you if something happened, but...what are you doing, cage fighting now?!"

Endymion closed his eyes. "Your imagination goes to some curious places," he said under his breath.

"Okay, fine, what happened?" Serenity continued to goad. She spun around and ran off towards the bar on the far side of the room. "Who punched you?!"

"A...a co-worker," Endymion explained. Serenity stopped just before scurrying behind the bar, looking back over her shoulder.

"A co-worker?" Serenity repeated. "A...Endy, you said—"

"It's not like that," Endymion interrupted. "One of the people who I work with in the laboratory, someone...involved in the business, he...we had a disagreement about the direction that we would be taking things in the future. And things got a little heated, and...well, he punched me."

Serenity did not look comforted or eased by Endymion's explanation.

"It was somebody who I've had no issue with before, in fact, I...I've had a good relationship with him previously. It's not a big deal, he just got angry for a minute. I'm sure next time I see him, he'll feel very silly about the whole thing and apologize."

"U-uh…" Serenity went behind the bar, kneeling down to grab a cloth napkin from one of the shelves, then splaying it out on the counter. "Endymion, you told me that...that you'd be safe, and there wasn't any risk, or—"

"There isn't!" Endymion said, watching Serenity begin to dump ice cubes onto the napkin, then roll it up into a closed bundle. "Serenity, when...when men are making decisions over...hundreds of billions of creds, sometimes emotions run high. That's all this was. I'm not in danger, that's silly to think. I've never been more safe."

"Well, how safe can you be if you're working with someone who thinks that...that punching someone in the face over a disagreement is an okay thing to do?!" Serenity asked, rushing over with the bundle of ice cubes.

"Serenity, it happens," Endymion assured her. "It's not a problem, just chalk it up to a...a thing that happens between men, sometimes. When I'm in the lab, I'm not the Prince of Earth, I'm just a person there to do a job. Sometimes things just get heated."

Serenity placed her right hand on the back of Endymion's head, then gently pressed the ice pack into his eyes. Endymion reached up, taking the napkin from her hand.

"Just...just hold it there," she said with a sigh. "So...what happened after?"

"Hm?" Endymion prompted. "Well, I mean, things cooled down a bit after that—"

"D-did you...punch him?" she asked.

"No!" Endymion said quickly, shaking his head. "No, no, I...I'm not...this person, who punched me, is significantly older than me. I didn't think it would be appropriate, so I didn't retaliate."

Serenity closed her eyes and shook her head. "Endy, I...Gods, you scared me."

"I have no intention of making a habit of it," the Prince grunted. "Just calm down, it's part and parcel of working with people in a business like this." He waved his left hand up towards the bathing room door. "Just go take your shower, and don't worry about it. B-but, don't tell anyone about this either."

Serenity grimaced. "If it _does_ become a habit, Endy, then that's going to be a problem. You told me there wasn't any more danger, I'm holding you to that."

He nodded, leaning back into the mattress as Serenity walked off. His ears were on high alert as she softly padded across the carpet, listening for the bathing room door to click open. A few moments later, it did, and Endymion slowly pulled the ice pack off his face. He tilted his head back, looking over to verify that Serenity had left the room, just in time to see her disappear into the side room.

A blank smile on his face, he looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm a dead man," he muttered under his breath.

"

Endymion powerfully slammed his knuckles into the steel door repeatedly, each knock causing a non-trivial degree of pain in his fingers. After perhaps a dozen knocks, the door slid open, admitting the Prince into Kunzite's private chambers, still as simple and plain as ever. The general sat on the edge of the bed, holding the black door remote in his right hand.

"Oh, Gods," Endymion grunted, stumbling in hurriedly, Kunzite quickly hitting a button on the remote to zip the door shut behind him. A giant pair of heavily-tinted sunglasses were perched on his nose, covering his eyes. Immediately, Kunzite's face fell.

"It came off?!" Kunzite asked, Endymion quickly answering the question by removing the glasses to expose his bruised face. "You should have—"

"Kunzite, we have bigger problems right now," Endymion said quickly, setting the glasses down on the table right by the head of Kunzite's bed and sitting down next to his general.

"A...agreed, but, this is still a problem," Kunzite countered.

"It's handled," Endymion insisted, gesturing towards the sunglasses he had just set down.

"People saw you walking around the palace with giant sunglasses on, that's not handled," Kunzite pointed out.

"Okay, fine, if anyone asks, I have a hangover," Endymion said brusquely.

"What about Serenity? Did she see it?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion gave annoyed grunt. "Yes, she did. I explained it, it's fine."

"What did you tell her?" Kunzite continued to press, despite the Prince clearly being eager to move from the topic. "Your Highness, this is important."

"I told her...mostly the truth, with a couple omissions, now can we move on to something more important?" Endymion asked, patience running thin. "Look, um...next moves, what are our next moves? We need to get on the same page here."

Kunzite's nose wrinkled a bit, trying to appraise Endymion state of mind, observing the Prince hunch over a bit and intertwine his fingers together. "Well, Your Highness, it's going to be a difficult situation. Seems to me that there's only one move to make. As soon as Cronus decides he no longer needs us, he's going to try to eliminate us both. Accurate or not, he seems to believe that he can get away with it. So, we'll have to get to him first."

"Yes, I understand that, but how?" Endymion asked. "How are we...what's our plan of attack? Suppose we did something to make sure that he understands that he _won't_ be getting away with it? You know, make it clear that if he does...eliminate us, that he'll go down with us."

Kunzite shrugged. "For all we know, his plan of how to get away with it would involve him simply disappearing off the grid. He certainly has the money to do it. No, I think...there's no other way for this to go. He's going to kill us. We have to kill him first."

Endymion rattled out a loud sigh. "Right. Right, right, right." He steepled his fingers together and pressed them up to his nose. "Okay. So, where is he? Where is...where does he live?"

"Difficult to really answer, he's constantly moving from one place to another for his work responsibilities. He's rarely in one location long enough for it to really constitute home. His personal starship is probably as close to a residence as he has. But, surely, after yesterday, he'll probably be taking extra measures to protect himself, so—"

A brisk little ringtone interrupted Kunzite, and Endymion's eyes darted down to his belt. In short order, he ripped his communicator off of his belt and lifted it up in front of his face. "Hello?"

"Hey, hey, son. How are you doing?"

"O-oh, dad!" Endymion said, jumping up to his feet. "Dad, uh, what's up?"

Kasios cleared his throat. "Oh, well...are you busy right now? I wanted to meet, in-person. There's something we need to discuss. Is now a good time?"

Endymion seemed a little taken aback by the serious, almost somber tone in Kasios's voice. Immediately, the Prince seemed to recognize that this was more important than a typical afternoon get together.

"Yes, yes, I can certainly do that. Now?"

"If you can manage, no time like the present," Kasios replied.

"Should Kunzite come?" Endymion asked, glancing over at his guardian.

"Sure, sure, he should probably be here too, bring him along. Just come to the primary tea room, soon as you can, I'll be waiting." The call was cut off immediately after Kasios concluded his sentence. Endymion raised his eyebrows down at the device in his hand, then looked over at Kunzite.

"Doesn't sound good," Endymion grunted. "Something's not right."

Kunzite pointed up towards Endymion's eyes. "Let me take care of that first."

"

Kasios pulled the two sides of the door together, sealing the threshold shut and blocking the small side room off from the rest of the palace. Endymion was seated near the center of the room, right up next to a round wooden table with a thick folder laying on it. Kunzite sat directly behind his charge, both of the young men training their eyes directly on the High King.

To their surprise, the King was not alone. Queen Serenity had also taken a seat around the wooden table, bringing the population of the room up to four. Her posture and expression reflected a certain somberness as well, reinforcing the sense that something serious was happening.

Kasios sighed. "I don't really know where to start with this one, um…" he stalked over to one of the empty chairs and fell back into it. "Alright, I've tried to keep this one to myself for as long as possible, because it was completely my situation, but...well, at this point, if you don't hear it from me now, you'll be finding out about it on the news soon."

"Dad, who died?" Endymion asked. "Come on, just come out with it, the suspense is worse than whatever the news might be."

"Oh, I doubt that," Kasios said grimly. "Alright. Well, I suppose it all starts with the deep space program." He nervously clenched his hands together in his lap. "Massive undertaking, obviously. I'm sure you're both familiar with the scope here. Required contributions from the whole galaxy. The technology, construction, planning, no one company or kingdom could have done it by themselves."

"Sure," Endymion said slowly. "I definitely know all of that."

"Right," Kasios said. "Also, extremely necessary, that's...very clear," he continued. "Our galaxy is running out of resources, we're starting to become taxed for space, we're a couple generations away from reverting most of the way back to the caveman days, it's...it's not optional. It has to be done."

"Dad, I know all of this," Endymion said. "W-what's going on? Are the deep space probes failing? Is that what this is about?"

"No," Kasios said. "Thank the Gods, at least we still have that. Sorry, sorry, I know I'm...rambling back and forth, but I really want to explain why this happened." He sighed. "So, I was the driving force behind building the deep space program back at the very beginning. Somebody had to take charge, we were running out of time. We might have already run out of time. And, um, well, let's just say that the rest of the galaxy didn't seem to share my sense of urgency."

Endymion leaned forward towards his father, focusing closely on his words.

"It's so easy to kick the can down the road. These people I was trying to work with, um, Kings, Queens, Dukes, businessmen, investors, pretty much all of them knew they were going to be long dead before things got too bad, it's hard to really get them to grasp the severity of a crisis that will never affect them. And convincing them to spend money and tie up resources for a long-term, open-ended project with fluid goals and a return on investment that was basically the roll of a dice, it was a tough sell." He rolled his eyes. "You try telling potential investors that your project will take anywhere from ten to a hundred years to start paying off and see how many stick around."

"But you pulled it off," Endymion reminded him. "Obviously. We've got hundreds of probes exploring the universe right now that prove it. So what's this all about?"

"Ahhh…" Kasios bit down on his lower lip. "Look, promises were made. Made by me, it was the only way. With the rare exception, nobody was willing to commit to the program unless their risk could be mitigated. So, I insured their investments."

Endymion cocked his head to the right a bit. "Okay?" He hadn't seen his father this shaky and unsure of himself in a very long time, and it would have been fascinating to view were it not also foreboding.

"I, um, I agreed to take on a huge portion of the risk that...Mercury and Jupiter and Uranus took on when they joined the project. The, the wealthy investors, a lot of them too. Basically, if the program failed to show concrete evidence of profitability on a reasonable timeline, I'd be responsible for a good portion of their investment. I'd have to basically buy them out." He cleared his throat. "Well, we're not where we thought we'd be, those probes have been out there for well over a decade now and we've got nothing concrete. Some interesting finds, things that are definitely scientifically valuable, but...nothing you can put a monetary value on. So, some of the investors are dropping out."

"Some?" Endymion repeated, starting to look more alarmed by the moment.

"Well, more than I would have expected, particularly all coming at once like this," Kasios muttered. "I suspect someone has been spreading horror stories of the project being a dead end, with no realistic possibility of actual return on investment." He rubbed at his face, scoffing loudly. "There's a whole universe out there of...stars and planets, that's established fact, our galaxy accounts for such a small percentage of what exists it can hardly be quantified, and somehow, it's believable that there's nothing out there worth finding, I really...I don't—"

"Dad?" Endymion prompted sternly. "What do you mean by some?"

He shook his head back and forth harshly. "Right, right, well...suffice to say, there's a long line of people with their hands out in my direction right now, and I'm contractually obligated to make them whole." He gesticulated around with his hands haphazardly. "I've spent the last decade trying to ease concerns about the program, convince people it would be worth it, and these last few cycles I've done all I can to persuade people to not panic, but...well, things are happening now."

Endymion sighed. "Okay. Well, we have a big surplus right now—"

"Had," Kasios corrected. "Believe me, whatever we had for a cushion, it's already gone, or been promised to someone. And that's the issue, there are still hands out, and we've run out of things to put in them."

Endymion's mouth drooped, his face crooked with a mixture of shock and disgust. "Dad! You mean to tell me insured investments and then didn't keep enough capital around to cover it?!"

"Oh, I _never_ had enough capital to cover the insurance, not even...not even close." He shook his head. "N-nobody does, really, it was just so much I had to cover."

The Crown Prince continued to give his father a highly judgemental look. "So, what exactly was the plan then?!"

Kasios grunted. "The plan was for the deep space program to keep to a timeline that satisfied everyone involved so that my insurance clauses would never be invoked. I...obviously, that was the plan!"

Endymion rose to his feet, getting up to his full height. "Probing deep space doesn't _have_ a timeline, dad! And you know that!" He pointed up at the ceiling. "What in existence right now is _more_ of an unknown than what lies beyond our galaxy?! Insuring other investors is one thing, but...doing it with capital you don't even have?!"

Kasios scowled. "Son, it was the only way, believe me, I...I saw the problem, nobody else wanted to! Whatever it took to get the program off the ground, it had to be done!" He furtively looked down at the floor in front of him.

Endymion rattled out a sigh. "The problem, the problem...the problem was for the entire galaxy! Not just you! Why would you put that all on you, as if...as if Earth was the only planet in the galaxy that had something to lose?!" He glanced behind him over at Kunzite, who remained stoic, absorbing the conversation without reacting to the subject matter.

Kasios just heaved another sigh, staring at the massive folder on the table in front of him.

"Okay. So, where does this leave us, what...what now?" Endymion asked, arms out wide to his sides. "Are we downsizing the palace? Cutting back on meals? Selling the silverware?"

"Son, I know you're upset, but sarcasm doesn't suit you, and it's not going to help," Kasios said sternly. "And, no, the issue is bigger than that, much bigger." The High King swallowed a lump in his throat. "I've...I've turned over every rock, checked every nook and cranny, pulled together every bit of capital I can to pay off the insurance, but like I said...the well is dry, and I've still got clauses to honor. Frankly, patience is in short supply with these people right now, so most likely, we're looking at a claim on collateral."

"Collateral?" Endymion repeated, squatting down back into the chair. "What's the collateral? The planet?"

After a long pause, Kasios responded only with a grim nod. Endymion kicked his head back, looking up at the ceiling in exasperation.

"Holy Mother of—"

"Endymion, hear me out!" Kasios said, a touch of pleading in his tone now. "Look, I can't know for sure, but most likely...we'll come to an arrangement with the remaining investors where they...how should I put this, uh...take control of certain regions on Earth." He pointed at Endymion. "Temporarily! Temporarily! It's not a permanent thing, not at all. But, anyway, they'll take ownership of areas of Earth, to use as they see fit. Harvest resources, collect taxes on people who live there, whatever they see as serving their own interests the best."

Endymion reached up, placing his hands over his eyes, just barely able to remember to not disturb the paint around his eyes that was covering up his bruises.

"And, like I said, temporary!" Kasios repeated. "It'll all get sorted out, we'll just have to accept things being a little...different for awhile."

"Well, I have to hand it to you," Endymion said darkly, slumping back in his chair. "The galaxy won't be set back three thousand years thanks to you. Just Earth."

"Son, we buy it back!" Kasios protested. "Over time, we build the surplus back up, get everything square, and eventually we can start buying back whatever we have to give up now!" He shook his head. "It's not going to be a big deal, history...history would barely even remember it!"

"Buy it back?" Endymion said incredulously. "In four hundred years, maybe? At best? Do you have any idea how long it'll take to build up capital when half the planet is being controlled by third parties?"

Kasios put his palms out towards his son. "Son, I—"

"You know what's actually going to happen? Most realistic case?" Endymion continued. "We go back to before Aethnos. _Before_ the planet was united. A hundred factions, scattered across the planet, constantly at war with each other, fighting for territory and survival, _that's_ where this is going! Buy it back?" He shook his head. "In twenty years, nobody will even _remember_ how Earth got divided, they won't be able to remember anything but fighting!"

"Endymion, please," Queen Serenity said softly, finally frayed enough to try to settle the budding argument. "Your father—"

"We'll be the laughingstock of the galaxy!" Endymion snapped. "Oh, look at those clowns on Earth, so busy fighting with themselves over...food and shelter!" He gave his father a frightening looking. "And what do you think happens when it gets out that you promised insurance against investments _that you didn't have capital for?!_ You think anyone will ever trust us again?!"

Kasios put his hand up to cover his face, eyes closed in exasperation. "Okay. Son. Listen, I...I made choices. Choices that...well, clearly, have consequences that come with them. There are often consequences for difficult choices, and maybe these ones are massive, but...understand this. I stand by those choices. They were the only choices I could make. And I know that, on some level, you know I'm right."

Endymion pointed an accusing figure over at Kasios. "You chose to put all this on you, you didn't have to do that. Every Kingdom in this galaxy needed the deep space program, you think they didn't all know that?! They all knew exactly what was at stake! But they knew, they knew your hero complex would kick in if they dragged their heels a bit, and did it ever!"

"Hero complex?" Kasios said. "Son, you—"

"Yeah," Endymion said, nodding. "You think you can do it all. Take on the whole burden, carry everyone, make all the sacrifices."

"Endymion, you are making assumptions about things that happened when you were very, _very_ young," Kasios countered. "And even if you're right, I didn't have the luxury of playing chicken. I did what I had to do."

"Why?" Endymion shrugged. "So when they write books about you, they can add a chapter about the time you took the entire deep space project on your shoulders? So you can get 'Savior of the Galaxy' carved on your mausoleum wall one day?!"

"Endymion, come on!" Kasios snapped. "You think I wanted any of this?!"

"Or, is your head always up there—" he pointed to the ceiling again, "—on _The Savery_ , instead of down here, where it belongs?"

"Endymion, don't start with that!" Kasios barked. "Don't."

An extended, awkward, tense silence was broken when the Crown Prince groaned, looking over at the rightmost wall. "Why'd you...keep this secret for so long?! Even a year ago, we could have taken steps to try to protect against this! We could have raised taxes, taken out loans from entities that didn't know about this, something! Don't tell me you were just...tied to a rail this whole time, completely unable to do anything to mitigate this."

"I did raise taxes last year," Kasios said tersely. "Believe me, I was preparing for something like this to happen. Just, not this much, and not all at once. I _tried,_ okay? I really did. Sometimes, you can't plan for a tsunami."

Endymion finally seemed to have vented enough to simmer down. Exhaling sharply, he sank into the cushioned seat beneath him slightly. "This was irresponsible, dad. Justify it however you want, insist it was the lesser of two evils...it was irresponsible. And _you_ know that _I'm_ right."

"Well, believe me, I'm going to be paying for it, if it makes you feel any better," Kasios muttered darkly.

"You're paying for it?" Endymion snapped, scowling over at his father. "You think you're the only one who pays for this?" He pointed at himself. "No, dad, _I'm_ paying for this. Probably more than you, when this is all over!" His eyes went wide. "Trust me, dad, I know exactly where this is going, and I'm going to pay for…"

The Prince trailed off, as if he had suddenly lost his train of thought. The High King took this as an invitation to continue.

"Alright, _we_ pay for it, fine." He coughed a bit. "In any case, I'm doing everything I can to convince investors to stay on the project, delay things as much as possible, but...most likely, in a couple cycles, I'm going to have to start making some creative deals."

Endymion's head tilted down towards the massive folder, still closed on the table, holding together a massive stack of assorted papers. Kunzite couldn't help but notice his focus on the documents, even though Kasios seemed more concerned with trying to explain the situation.

"It's not what anyone wanted, obviously, and I'm sorry it has to be this way, but your worse-case scenario is pure paranoia, and you're best served to not think about it. There's a _very_ good chance that the deep space program will start to reap valuable returns in the next few years. And, in the silver lining department, investors dropping out of the project mean I get to take on their stake as well, so we'll be entitled to a bigger share of things once we actually find them." Kasios put his hand beneath his chin. "Ten years, maybe fifteen, we'll be swimming in capital, and we'll have the whole planet back easily. So, anyway, obviously, emotions are running high right now, so why don't we both just go cool off, and tomorrow—"

Endymion pointed at the folder. "Can I take this?"

"...huh?" Kasios grunted, eyes flickering over to look at the folder. "Uh, s-sure, I guess."

Endymion, in one fluid motion, got to his feet and stepped forward, grabbing the light brown folder in both hands and hugging it up to his chest. Without another word, he spun around and made for the door back out into the hallway.

"You're not going to read that whole thing, are you?" Kasios asked, sounding a little wary as Endymion moved with purpose. "That'll take a cycle, it's a lot of data."

"If I have to, I will," Endymion grunted. "Whatever it takes to fix this."

Kasios immediately gave an exasperated sigh. "Son, you can't...this isn't something that can be fixed. Believe me, I've tried. If I can't make it work, how will you?"

Fumbling with the massive collection of documents, Endymion managed to get the sliding door open and push it back into the recess in the wall. "It's like my grandfather used to say. You don't want to die wondering." With that, he turned to the right, disappearing out into the hall, the faint sound of his footsteps marking his departure.

Maybe three beats later, during which the remaining trio sat in a mildly-shocked silence, a violent crash right outside shocked everyone out of their depressed miasma. Sure enough, it was quickly followed by a loud profanity from the Prince.

Kunzite got to his feet. "Could you possibly send the Prince a...digital copy of all that, please, Your Highness?" he asked. Getting a quick nod from the High King, Kunzite retreated out into the hall, peering out to find Endymion muttering to himself, the foldered documents having scattered all across the floor in both directions. The Prince was bending over, trying to scoop the loose papers back up into one pile.

"

Zoisite held a piece of heavily-inked paper in either hand, eyes shifting back and forth between either rapidly. The giant folder was open in front of him, perhaps hundreds of more pages beckoning for his attention next. His silent examination of the documents had an audience, with Prince Endymion, Kunzite, Nephrite, and Princess Serenity all gathered nearby. Endymion's bedroom was typically not so crowded, but the high stakes of the current situation demanded such a presence.

"It's completely absurd," Endymion grumbled, hands on his hips and standing right next to Kunzite. "I've got massive mountains of capital under the floorboards in safehouses all over the planet, there _has_ to be a way to leverage that! We just have to find it."

"Your Highness, we should scale back expectations here," Kunzite said warningly. "That 'capital' could just as easily expose everything you've done over the last year if we try to throw it at this problem."

"What good is any of this if I can't even use the money I've earned to protect my birthright?" Endymion questioned. "This is an emergency. If we don't find a way out, Earth may be splintered beyond repair." He pointed at the bedroom door. "I don't care what my father says, if Earth get chopped up into factions, it'll be the end of the Kingdom forever."

"Possible, but that doesn't change the fact that we can't just pull hundreds of billions of creds out of thin air and not have people asking questions," Kunzite countered.

"Yeah, so, why exactly is that?" Serenity asked, leaning over from her seat on the left edge of the bed. "Why _can't_ we just use that money?"

"Um, I'll explain later, sweetie," Endymion said dismissively. "It's complicated. But, either way, there _has_ to be a way. If there was _ever_ a reason to come up with a way, no matter how complicated and risky it is, this is that reason!"

"Are these supposed to be in some sort of order?" Zoisite asked, shuffling through the papers. "Because some of this is a little confusing."

Endymion winced hard. "Just...I don't need an exact solution right this moment, just try to get a general gist of the size of the problem and go from there!"

"I'm having a bit of a hard time believing it," Nephrite said, leaning up against the wall next to the bed, arms crossed over his chest. "High King Kasios, putting his entire Kingdom at risk like this."

"You're telling me," Endymion muttered, grimacing. "Talk about kicking the can down the road. It's not _him_ who'll have to deal with the fallout of this. I'm the one who gets to take control of a Kingdom with half of its territory out on 'loan'."

"Well, from my initial reading here, I must say...this is highly irresponsible," Zoisite said quietly, giving a reflexive look over his shoulder.

"That's what I said!" Endymion agreed. "He, uh, he never mentioned any of this to you, did he?"

"No, definitely not, Your Highness," Zoisite answered. "And if he had made it known to me that he was signing off on guaranteeing capital that didn't exist, I...well...I mean...I would have...strongly objected to that," he said, quickly turning his attention back to the spread of documents in front of him.

Endymion sighed, stepping over closer to the bed and powerfully sitting down on the edge, next to Serenity. "It's just...it's unbelievable, that he would let something like this get to this point."

Serenity gave a non-committal little grunt, sidling up closer to her husband. "Jeez, you think...did the Moon merger have something to do with this?"

"Well if it did, that's on him too!" Endymion growled. "He's an adult, and...his whole life is about making those kinds of decisions correctly. If the deal with the Moon played a part in this, then...no, Serenity, none of this comes back to you at all. He owns this. What was he _thinking?!_ "

Serenity frowned. "Well, mistakes were made, but...Endy, he was trying to do what was best for the galaxy. Of course he didn't want any of this to happen. Try to...just please, don't be mad at him." She placed her right hand up on his shoulder. "This is how he is, he's always trying to do whatever it takes to do what's best for everyone."

Endymion scoffed. "There comes a point when you've taken so many steps back, trying to see the big picture, you end up falling off a cliff. My father is King of Earth, not...King of the Galaxy. When you're on a sinking boat, you're supposed to put on your own life vest before you help other people with theirs."

"You can't even say it's because of old age, he did this nearly two decades ago," Nephrite mused. "Although, just sitting there and...letting it happen, not doing enough to prepare for the possibility, maybe that."

"Gods, it's just like the story," Endymion said. "The, the story, um...what was it? The Man Who Gave Everything. I remember reading it, I...it's just like that."

Serenity leaned over towards her husband. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"The Man Who Gave Everything, they don't have that one on the Moon?" Endymion asked. "It's a fairy tale, I read it when I was eight."

Serenity slowly shook her head. "Must have missed that one."

"Oh, uh, it was just…" he thought for a moment. "There's a wealthy man, and he's watching the news, and sees how the world is full of misery. He thinks, I have money, I should help. He gives away all of his money, but then he watches the news, and he sees that the world is still full of misery. He still wants to help, so then he...uh, he goes to the doctor, says he wants to donate a kidney. So he does, he has the surgery, donates his kidney, but then he watches the news, and he sees that the world is still full of misery. He goes back to the doctor, and this time he says he wants to donate his, his liver, his heart, blood, everything he has. The doctor tells him that that's insane, and he can't do that, since it'd be suicide. He'd have to be dead first. So the man, he just...he can't live with himself, knowing that there's still misery in the world. So he commits suicide. He gives the only thing he has left, his life, to try to help ease the misery."

Serenity blinked a couple times. "Does that work? Did he, did the misery end?"

Endymion gave a wry smile. "Go watch the news, you tell me."

She looked mildly distressed. "What kind of fairy tale is that?!"

"It's trying to teach a lesson," Endymion explained. "It's making a point."

"Okay." Serenity pointed at Endymion. "You're not allowed to read Chibiusa fairy tales. Ever. What, the guy just kills himself for nothing?"

"The point is, only a fool thinks that he can solve the world's problems on their own," Endymion continued. "That's the lesson, that's the moral, and...I can't stop thinking about it, ever since the talk with dad today. It's the same thing. Only a fool thinks that he can solve the world's problems."

Serenity pursed her lips. "I mean...don't you still have to try?"

Zoisite cleared his throat. "Your Highness."

Endymion immediately got to his feet, looking over at his most intelligent guardian.

"Well, it's definitely a big problem," he started. "It's trillions of creds worth of a hole. It actually could have been much worse. Could still _get_ much worse, honestly, there are a ton of investors who could drop out still. Terrifying to think about, he could easily get into debt that exceeds the worth of the entire planet if more people get cold feet."

"But?" Endymion prompted impatiently.

"As is...it's still bad. But, the way I see it, there's a path. We're going to have to be _far_ more aggressive with laundering and expansion. A lot of business flipping, pump and dumps, some very risky and high-variance maneuvers. Maybe even unethical. We'll need these investors to be willing to meet us halfway, maybe we'll have to come up with some sort of credible excuse for why we don't currently have the capital to honor the agreement immediately. But, assuming the goal is to avoid having to hand over territory as collateral, then I think it's possible."

Endymion clapped his hands together violently. "Thank you!"

"Possible!" Zoisite repeated. "I really want to stress, this discrepancy is...I mean, it's many times larger than all the money you've made in your side business so far. To just say we can throw that money at this problem and it'll go away, not even close. We'll need many other things to go our way."

"Alright. What do we need?" Endymion asked. "Because whatever it is, we'll have it."

"For starters, we're going to need all hands on deck, Your Highness," Zoisite answered. "Every single person who you trust, they need to be involved in this. The growth we need, we need everyone's help."

Endymion nodded, then turned to look over at Nephrite. "Sooner the better then. Can you go round him up?"

The brunette general nodded, coming up off the wall and heading for the bedroom door. "Well, at least we won't have to keep secrets from him anymore."

Just as quickly, Endymion was back to addressing Zoisite. "Whatever you need, you make those needs known as soon as possible. I am _not_ letting this planet get split up into factions, whatever it takes."

"Well, a digital copy of these documents would be a good start," Zoisite said, eyes darting down and scanning the spread of pages before him. "I _really_ don't think these are in a sensible order."

"

Half a dozen men, each of them wearing grey jumpsuits marked with an emblem on the back of a red flame inside a yellow circle, stood around the metal table that had a large, sealed black bag laid across it. One of the men held a large clipboard in his right hand.

"Alright, that's that, then," he said, looking over the tiny print on the document.

"Make sure you get everything right on this one, Marcellus." Another of the men came up closer to the side of the table, studying the closed up bag. "This is a big one, and I have a feeling our work will be double-checked."

"Believe me, I did," Marcellus countered. "And I treat every autopsy with an equal amount of care and attention, I do everything in my power to not get anything wrong."

"She was a big deal," one of the men muttered. "One of the best scientists in the galaxy. Crying shame that she doesn't get to spend the next sixty years launching us into the future with technological and scientific innovations." He looked over at Marcellus. "What killed her, head trauma or exposure?"

"Exposure," he answered. "Although, I will say, whatever she hit her head on...cracked the skull. If the exposure hadn't gotten her, head trauma was not far behind." He shook his head. "So, did we ever dig up any family connections, Augustus?"

One of the other men present shook their head. "Nothing. The only person that makes any sense to contact about the body is Cronus. So, I guess we do that now?"

"Oh!" Marcellus tapped the clipboard a couple times. "After I thawed her out, I was able to search the body a bit, check for any possessions. They're in a bag inside." He pointed down at the bodybag. "There wasn't much, but I thought I'd go ahead and make a note of it."

"What'd you find?" Augustus asked. "Might be important, this has foul play written all over it. Law enforcement is going to want to know all about whatever she might have had on her."

"Well, she had a little device on her, I had to do some research to figure out what it was. Turns out it was one of those tools that detects the purity level of imperium. An advanced one, not the cheap ones that you can buy at the store. This one actually would break the product down and really test the percentage reliably." Marcellus shrugged. "I mean, she was a scientist, so I suppose it's not that surprising."

"Hm," Augustus grunted. "Probably."

"So, anyway—"

"Hey, when you file that autopsy report, make sure a copy gets sent to the Galactic Imperium Agency, huh?" Augustus asked. "It's a little thin, but her having that device provides at least a _little_ connection to imperium that they should at least be informed of."

"Really?" Marcellus scratched the back of his head. "Seems a little thin."

"Hey, worst thing that happens is it ends up wasting a tiny bit of server space up on _The Savery_ for a year," Augustus pointed out. "It's a professional courtesy."

"Alright, no problem." Marcellus made a note on the clipboard. "Okay, next body, moving on!"

The six men moved in a herd to another identical table with a similar bagged corpse, slowly working through the barren, cold, sterile-feeling room, each of them eager to conclude their work and get away from all the death.


	39. Spot The Thread

Chapter 39: Spot The Thread

"You've got to be _shitting_ me."

Jadeite rapidly flipped his gaze from person to person, trying to find any cracks, any indication of this being an elaborate joke. A smirk, a giggle, something, anything. But despite his best attempts, his three fellow Earth generals, the Prince, and the Princess all remained stoic.

"Elaborate practical jokes are more your field, Jadeite," Kunzite said, seated right in front of the younger blond general. "This is all real, I promise you."

Jadeite pointed up at Prince Endymion, who was next to his wife on the side of the bed. "He's been running black market imperium out of the palace?"

"Not out of the palace," Endymion countered. "You make it sound like I'm purifying it in my bath."

"Well, _however_ you're doing it, I don't really care, that's...I mean, why?!" His face wrinkled up. "What's the point? Of all the things you could be spending your free time on, why this?!"

"There were a series of circumstances and situations that led to this being the best solution," Endymion said evenly.

"Hey, buddy, don't get me wrong," Jadeite said. "As far as hobbies go, I've certainly seen far stranger. When I was growing up back east, my best friend had an older brother, and what he liked was, he would get these girls to—"

Nephrite unleashed a throat grunt that nearly shook the entire room, getting Jadeite to jolt up a bit and look up to his left, where the much larger Earth general was looming.

"...right. My point was, I just imagined that you would prefer a side project that involved less risk of being thrown in the most secure prison in the galaxy and being removed from the line of succession." He shrugged. "Last I checked, wood sculpting is legal."

"I was trying to protect what should have been rightfully hers," Endymion stated, looking over at Serenity.

"I...wait, wait," Jadeite said suddenly. "How long has this been going on?"

"Coming up on a year," Kunzite answered.

"And why am I being informed just now?" Jadeite asked, pointing at Nephrite and Zoisite, each of them standing on either side of him. "I'm sure Kunzite got in on the ground floor, he and the Prince are joined at the hip, but…"

"Been awhile," Nephrite answered gruffly.

Jadeite gave a semi-pleading looking over to Zoisite, who simply shrugged.

"Oh, come on!" Jadeite whined. "What, you guys...you all knew the whole time?! You didn't think I might want to know about it?" He pointed at Serenity. "You told _her_ before me?!"

"Jadeite, we were doing you a favor," Endymion said, slowly getting to his feet. "Plausible deniability, I didn't want anyone to know unless they needed to." He paused for a moment. "And if you must know, Serenity wasn't told, she found out."

Jadeite blinked a few times, face wrinkling. "W-wait." He looked over at the Princess. "Se-Your Highness, does this have anything to do with...is this why you...uh…" he made an odd spinning gesture with the index finger of his right hand. Endymion scowled.

Serenity looked a little sheepish. "Right. So, I never did get a chance to...uh, Jadeite, I'm sorry I pulled you into that. I was beyond angry with Endy, so I just lashed out in whichever way I could. But lying to you and involving you like that, I shouldn't have done that. Sorry." She bowed her head a bit.

Jadeite pointed over towards the Prince, who was getting more visibly irritated by the moment. "Yeah, you should be, he tried to kill me!"

"Alright," Zoisite interjected. "We're not talking about that! Jadeite, I'm sure you have many questions, and we'll be happy to fill in all the blanks later, but for the moment, we should keep it to the core of the issue. The Earth Kingdom is trillions of creds in debt, and the Prince has hundreds of billions of illicitly-gained creds. We need to use the latter to handle the former. So, we need to pump it, as fast as possible, through legitimate businesses. We're going to have a very short window of time, so we need as many flows running as possible. Are you on board?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Jadeite said quickly. "Not really my area of expertise, but of course, I serve the palace, and the Prince first and foremost." He gave his head a quick shake. "I just can't believe that _this_ is what I'll be doing to serve the palace and Prince, but, absolutely."

"Good," Zoisite said shortly. "I'll be selling the bookstore chain and flipping the resulting capital into other ventures. The name of the game is pump and dump. We buy majority shares of small, struggling, or failing businesses, quickly right the ship, build value, and then sell it. And every transaction along the way, we launder."

"Got any books I should read?" Jadeite asked. "Do I have time to take a business class or two at an academy?"

"I have a better idea," Zoisite said. "I think this works better if you're properly motivated. And of course, this only goes under the radar if it makes sense externally."

"I don't know what any of that means," Jadeite said. "And quite frankly, the way you said it makes me afraid that this involves me wearing a chastity belt of some sort."

"No," Zoisite said quickly. "Jadeite, how would you like to run a professional handball team?"

"

It took a lot for an environment to be so sterile, so artificial, so clean and maintained, that it made Cronus uncomfortable.

He spent his life in carefully-controlled laboratories and orderly offices, so he would have expected to find the hallways of _The Savery_ familiar, but there was something foreboding about being inside a man made creation of this size and scope. Steel in every direction, each hall looking just like the previous hundred, just about every door identical, it was as if the whole place was built by robots with no sense of style or taste. Sitting here, just outside the door of a small meeting room, Cronus could see why criminals dreaded the idea of extended stays aboard the station.

The pharmaceutical kingpin waited in silence, just barely reacting to give a requisite polite nod every few secundas when someone walked past. The mask he had spent the last decade constructing was working overtime to present his friendly, public face out to the very organization that was hunting his other half, as his mind was already blaring with alarms of how delicate things had suddenly become.

Prince Endymion, however clever his little scheme was, and however necessary it was from his perspective to guarantee his survival, had committed a cardinal sin. He had left a mess. Cronus had survived for so long in large part by making sure he never left a mess. And despite his best efforts to clean up the mess that the Prince had left, it seemed as if he might have come up just short. It was too much of a coincidence for the agency to call him in to answer some questions, just days after Viluy had met her end. Surely, they were related.

But, Cronus was nothing if not a survivor. It was just going to be a little harder this time.

"

Grandmaster Galen tapped his fingertips along the top of the long oak table, pursing his lips as he glanced around the small, darkened room, made up of not too much more than the table, eight chairs around it, and a projector hanging from the ceiling pointed at the south wall. A dull, gentle light bathed the small room in illumination.

On the other side of the table, Orion was impatiently glancing back and forth between the two doors. One on the west wall, the other on the east.

"He doesn't actually _have_ to be here for this," Orion muttered.

"He wanted to be, he was very clear about that," Galen pointed out. "Let's wait a little longer. He's the driving force behind this anyway."

"Can't believe we're doing this," Orion grunted. "You think Cronus is getting up for any fund-raisers for the agency after getting called in for an interrogation?"

"It's not an interrogation," Galen interjected. "We're just asking some questions. Reasonable, fair questions given the circumstances. I mean, I'm not going _quite_ as far as Kasios on this one, he's a little too eager to throw out the extreme accusations, but this is certainly a stone worth flipping over."

"Cronus, majority owner of Soranus Pharmaceuticals, head of Galen Laboratories, involved in black market imperium?" Orion said under his breath. "I just don't see it. Why would he?"

"Well, we're certainly not implying anything of the sort right now. Actually, we won't be implying anything. We're just here to get some answers and theories from the one person who might have some idea of why Viluy died under such bizarre circumstances."

Suddenly, the eastern door burst open, the High King of Earth stepping in to join his two colleagues. "Sorry! Sorry. Held up down on Earth."

"It's understood that your priorities on Earth might take precedence, you know," Orion said as Kasios shut the door behind him. "Me and the Grandmaster could have easily handled this."

"No, no, I'm not missing this," Kasios said dismissively.

"I think you might be overestimating the significance of this," Galen said. "We're just asking a few questions, and in all likelihood, Cronus will answer them, and that'll be that. I think you're imagining a massive breakthrough that just isn't going to happen."

"Maybe," Kasios agreed, bending his torso to the right a bit. "But he's got some things to answer for, doesn't he? I mean, stop me if I'm being delusional, but I'm pretty sure all the shit we found warrants an investigation at the least. And Cronus has some explaining to do in order to clear himself based on what we know."

"Absolutely," Galen agreed. "My point is, it's far more likely that Cronus is able to explain himself, and that'll be that."

"No accusations, by the way," Orion said sternly. "We're just asking questions. Don't even imply anything, we still want this guy to like us after this is over."

"I won't," Kasios assured.

"He's waiting out in the hall," Galen said, jerking his head over towards the western door. "All yours."

Wordlessly, Kasios went over to the other side of the small room, pulling the door open in one smooth motion and peering out into the hall. "Cronus! Afternoon!"

The white-haired, bespectacled man rose to his feet and turned to the High King of Earth. "Afternoon." He reached forward and took Kasios's hand, shaking it. "Good to see you, Your Highness."

"Not up here," Kasios protested, stepping to the side so Cronus could enter the small meeting room. "I'm not a Highness up here."

"Grandmaster Galen, Orion," Cronus said in turn. "Good to see you."

Galen gave a wan smile. "Cronus. Um, any chance you could stay for awhile after this meeting? I was thinking about grilling up some salmon, I'd love to catch up with you."

"Sounds wonderful," Cronus replied. "I think I can do that."

"Kasios, how about you?" Orion asked, glancing over at the High King.

"Ah...I actually need to get back to Earth right after this," Kasios muttered quickly.

Orion rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Ah. Right then. Cronus, have a seat, please."

The pharmaceutical kingpin quickly swung into one of the vacated chairs, leaving a few for Kasios to choose from. "Alright. So, what is this all about? I sense that it's not about setting up another fundraiser or donation drive."

Galen cleared his throat. "Well, Cronus, first of all, let me just say, I'm really sorry to hear about Viluy. Real tragedy, what happened there. I know you two were close."

"Thank you," Cronus said, smiling amicably. "It's certainly sad. She had so much more to do in her life."

"Mm," Kasios said. "So, Cronus, I'm sure you're aware of this, but just so we're all on the same page here. The circumstances of Viluy's death, they're a little curious. Some things worth asking questions about."

"That's what this is about?" Cronus asked. "I'm sorry, but I can't help but wonder how this has become an agency issue. I've already been working with law enforcement concerning this incident, I'm not sure what the agency has to do with any of this."

"Right." Orion clapped his hands together. "Just...bear with us for a moment here, Cronus, some of the findings around Viluy's death drew our attention. We just want to get your perspective on things. And we didn't want to wait for the Space Enforcement Bureau to inquire about this and hand off information to us. We're actually collaborating with the bureau on this, they're focused on investigating the crime scene, and we're asking some questions of the handful of people who might have relevant information."

"Very well. How can I help?" Cronus tugged at his overcoat's lapels.

"Alright." Orion opened up a thin folder in front of him. "So, it's tough to deny that there was some form of foul play with Viluy's death. The autopsy and evaluation of the scene indicated that a mining laser blew a hole in the hull of this freighter ship while Viluy was inside, resulting in her exposure to the vacuum of space. It's very likely that someone, or someones, wanted her dead. Seems like she was, somehow, lured onto this freighter ship. We don't know how, or why, or what the context might have been. What we do know, however, is that this freighter ship was carrying a collection of barrels. Could have been a couple dozen, couple hundred, couple thousand, hard to know since so many of them had spun off in every direction by the time the salvage crew got to the ship. But the salvage crew was able to round up a good number of them, and got them open." He gestured towards Cronus. "These barrels were all full of clear crystals. Are we working off the same set of information so far."

"Yes," Cronus said quickly. "That's my understanding as well."

"The crystals were nothing," Orion continued. "Decorative, cheap, no scientific qualities at all. Which is pretty strange. Seemed like that's all the freighter was carrying, too. However, it was noted that the crystals did very closely resemble, at a cursory glance, raw, highly pure imperium. So, that caught our attention. And the freighter, unmarked, no identification tags, no way to determine who it belonged to or what it might have been doing. So, the question is, what was Viluy doing there?"

"I see," Cronus said. "I think I can provide clarity."

"Well, that's the best news I've heard all day," Galen said. "Go ahead."

"Galen Laboratories has, in recent cycles, been placing a special focus on trying to develop new lung medications. Thirty-six percent of deaths in the galaxy that are attributed to being of natural causes relate to failures of the lung. We are quite close to beginning the mass production of this medication, which we believe will extend the average lifespan in the galaxy by three years within two generations. However, in order to produce the amount of this medication needed, we require a massive amount of a particular crystal, called tiberium. Not exactly rare, but I wouldn't call it common, either. Lately, we've been in contact with various suppliers, trying to procure as much tiberium as possible for when we're ready for production. Perhaps half-a-cycle ago, we were contacted by a merchant, who claimed to have a massive supply of tiberium that he would sell at a discount."

"Maybe just a little too good to be true?" Kasios suggested, rubbing his chin. "Did he also offer to sell you a pet dragon?"

"Oh, I certainly had my doubts. But in a circumstance like this, I had to at least look into it. What's the worst that could happen, I thought." He grimaced. "It would seem I now have an answer to that."

Galen's forehead knitted together. "Are you saying that this merchant is responsible for Viluy's murder?"

"Not a merchant, as it seems," Cronus said, face going taut. "We kept up correspondence with this source for awhile, and it seemed credible, so I arranged for a look at the crystals. Viluy went, and ended up in a trap. I suspect it was meant for me, but they took what they could while they could get it."

"And who is _they_?" Kasios asked. "You're saying someone was trying to kill you?"

"That, I can't answer with full confidence. But I have a suspicion." He nervously glanced between the three older men in front of him. "I suppose I am obligated to be as open as possible, but I have to say, I'm somewhat concerned about repercussions for what I'm about to divulge. I only ask that you all extend me the courtesy of respecting my concerns about this being spread around."

Galen pursed his lips. "Well, Cronus, I'm not entirely sure what I can promise. But you know the respect I have for you, professionally and personally. So I suppose I'll promise to take your concerns seriously."

Cronus nodded. "Very well." He swallowed down hard. "I suspect that The Rings were behind this."

Orion jolted up a bit. "The Rings? What makes you think that?"

"Well, it's no secret that I was born on Saturn, and I've made public my support of the current regime remaining in power and re-uniting the planet under one rule. And in recent cycles, it's my understanding that the current regime is gaining the upper hand in the war. In fact, according to my sources, the war should be effectively won some time in the next six cycles. The Rings, perhaps realizing that their time is limited, feel the urgency to do something that will have a strong impact on the galaxy. Cause as much chaos as possible, while they can. At their core, The Rings are little more than a terrorist organization, despite their claims otherwise. So I believe they attempted to assassinate me just to try to knock off a high-profile individual who supported the House of Saturn. Splash around in the pond as much as possible before drowning. When they couldn't get me, they took Viluy instead."

"Hm." Kasios put his hand up to his lips. "Interesting. You really think they'd divest resources away from a planet wide civil war to try to kill someone not directly involved? Particularly right now, when they run the risk of losing?"

"Like I said, Your Highness. The Rings are ultimately terrorists. Whatever excuse they can come up with to revert to terrorist-like activities, I imagine they'd take." Cronus shrugged. "Again, I have no proof, just a theory."

"Well, I have to admit, it's a persuasive theory," Galen admitted. "Have you told this theory to anyone else?"

"Ah, no," Cronus said uneasily. "Truthfully, I've been hesitant to do so. Obviously, I have no proof. And it also makes me look rather foolish, having been deceived like this. But, more than anything, I wish to avoid stirring the pot by voicing my suspicions publically."

"How do you mean?" Kasios asked quickly. "You think The Rings murdered your friend and colleague, don't you want to make sure they answer for it?"

"Of course, but that's not the only consideration," Cronus said carefully. "Revenge is a bad business to get involved in. And I do not want to give The Rings a reason to continue to target me. Even if I can make myself untouchable, my business holdings span the entire galaxy, and much of it is vulnerable to terrorist attack. I fear The Rings might come after me with all that they have if I make my suspicions known. If I keep it to myself, they will likely dismiss me as a target after their initial failure."

"Sure, maybe. Or maybe they're loading up for a more direct run at you, and you need to make sure everyone knows so you can start taking measures to protect yourself," Kasios suggested. "If you really believe this is what's going on here, I don't think you should keep quiet."

"I'm afraid I can't see it that way," Cronus said. "I do not want to provoke a terrorist organization in what they must realize is their final days. As it stands, they took a shot at me, and they missed. I seriously doubt they'd try again, given that I'm now aware of the potential danger. But if I were to attempt to get the entire galaxy to destroy them with a true, but impossible to prove, accusation, they could go after my laboratories and pharmacies. Tens of thousands of my employees, and billions of creds in medicine, would be at risk. Not to mention the well-being of galactic civilians that would have their medication supply disrupted. I'd prefer for the civil war to take its course and handle The Rings that way."

"I see," Galen said quietly. "I can understand your concerns."

"Can I help you gentlemen with anything else?" Cronus asked. "I believe that's all I can say about Viluy's death."

"I think that's all we need," Orion said, motioning forward to close the folder.

"Actually, there was one more thing that caught our eye," Kasios spoke up, leveling his gaze over at Cronus. "Actually, it was the thing that got this case on our desk in the first place. Viluy's body was found with a particular possession. An imperium purity reader. Advanced one, too." He shrugged. "Any reason why she might have been carrying that with her?"

Without missing a beat, Cronus replied. "Almost all of her work at the labs required her to understand exactly how much energy output would be achieved when an imperium burner was activated. Hardly a day went by where she wasn't needing to get a precise measurement of imperium output. She carried that reader everywhere she went. I suspect it was almost like a body part to her, after so many years of using it."

"Mm." Kasios nodded. "Was there a reason why Viluy, and not you, went to investigate this offer?"

"She's more qualified to make judgements of suitability of Tiberium than I am," Cronus answered. "And I had a very important meeting with shareholders running during the time of the meet."

"Alright, I think that's about it," Orion said, standing up. "Sorry to pull you in like this, Cronus." He reached across the table and put his hand out, Cronus getting to his feet and taking it in his own. "You remember where Galen's office is?"

"I think I can find it," Cronus said.

"Why don't you head over, me and the Grandmaster will be along shortly and we can discuss things over some of that grilled salmon," he said with a smile.

"See you shortly." Without waiting for any last-moment inquires, Cronus departed the room the way he came, opening the door just enough to admit himself outside and closing it behind him.

"So. Satisfied?" Galen asked.

"I'll look into some of his claims," Orion said. "Make sure that Galen Labs has been focusing on lung medication recently, check that the shareholders meeting actually happened, look into the tiberium story with his major suppliers. But I have to say, I think I buy it."

"It was convincing," Kasios acknowledged. "I mean, The Rings, what did you think about that part of it? They're over on Saturn, fighting for their lives, hanging on by a thread, they're gonna spend their time going after a businessman just because he came out in support of the royal house?"

"The man had a good point," Orion suggested. "They're terrorists. And they're starting to get desperate. And by the sounds of things, their little plan didn't require a ton of manpower."

"So you buy it?" Kasios asked.

"I wouldn't exactly swear by it, but I'm inclined to believe he's probably right. Good catch with the imperium reader, by the way, kind of slipped my mind. But his answer there too, it made sense." Orion gave a halfhearted shrug. "I'll confess to not being entirely impartial on this one, but I think it adds up the way he says it."

"None of us are impartial. Cronus has been good to us for a very long time, I think we're all leaning towards assuming the best of him," Galen admitted. "Myself included. Even putting that aside, I think we can close the book on this one, assuming his stories check out."

"U-uh, Grandmaster Galen, I wouldn't go that far," Kasios protested. "Yes, he acquitted himself well, but I think that there's a lot more to look at here."

"Yes, there is," Galen agreed. "There's a lot more investigating to do. But it's got nothing to do with us. Whatever happened on that freighter, and whatever the circumstances of Viluy's death are, the bureau is more than capable of handling. We stepped in because we had reason to believe that imperium might have been involved, and now we no longer think that. So the agency has no further reason to be part of this investigation." He got to his feet. "If the bureau comes to believe that imperium is somehow tied into this matter, they can bring us back in. Now, what we have to do decide on whether we keep Cronus's secret suspicion a secret."

Kasios turned away, face clouding over with a small scowl.

"I say we respect his wishes," Orion suggested. "We owe it to him. Besides, he can't prove it. If the bureau investigates and finds evidence of what he claims, then that's another matter, but I see no reason to divulge his beliefs against his will."

Kasios gave a quick, vague nod. "Yes, yes, that's fine," he muttered.

Galen pursed his lips. "Kasios, you seem unhappy."

"Oh, no, no, sorry, Grandmaster," Kasios grunted. "I just...um, I don't know. I just can't help but feel like the investigation might be better served by us remaining a part of it."

Galen carefully considered his words for a few moments. "There's no reason for us to put our time and resources into it until we have reason to believe it involves imperium. We thought we had that reason, now we don't. That's really all that can be said. From our perspective, there is no investigation."

"Understood," Kasios said, standing up. "Alright, you two enjoy the grilled salmon, I actually have to get back to Earth."

Orion sighed. "You could have just called in, you know. Burning imperium to make a trip all the way here just for one short meeting, not the best message to be sending."

"Oh, I...I wanted to be here for this one," Kasios said absentmindedly, turning towards the door behind him.

"

"Unbelievable," Endymion grumbled, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the gold, wide-winged spaceship settle into the docking grooves, the force of its movement enough to push him a half-step away. "It really is, unbelievable. Everything happening down here on Earth, the agency should be the _last_ thing on his mind right now. The mess he's made, every bit of his time should be spent on trying to clean it."

"Your Highness, please," Kunzite said, putting his hands up on the Prince's shoulders. "We're going to need his co-operation, and we're far more likely to get that if we refrain from berating him."

Endymion unfurled his left fist, revealing a small green data chip in his palm, maybe the size of his thumb. The door on the side of the just-docked ship whisked open, the Prince and his general immediately approaching it. High King Kasios stood right by the step out into the palace hangar, giving a confused stare at his son as he rapidly approached.

"Oh, welcoming committee," Kasios said quietly, eyes darting back and forth between the two young men quickly. "What, did something bad happen?"

"I'd consider being trillions of creds in debt something bad, so, I suppose so," Endymion answered tersely.

Kasios's eyes bulged a bit, and he reached forward to roughly yank Endymion into the interior of his personal A Class starship. Kunzite quickly followed his charge into the King's ship, and Kasios hit a panel by the wall to get the hatch to seal.

"Not where people could overhear us!" Kasios hissed, pushing Endymion a bit towards the middle of the ship interior.

"Nobody was there," Endymion muttered, turning around to face his father. "Alright, we need to talk about this, right now."

Kasios sighed. "Son, I...look, I'm sorry, okay? I am. I'm sorry. But this isn't helping. You hounding me about it, nothing can be done to undo things now. I don't have a time machine, and neither do you. L-look, I got us into this, I'll get us out, I'm...I'm not saying it'll be quick, or anything, but just let me figure this out. Forget about it, pretend it doesn't exist, and let me figure out the best way forward."

"Dad, I already found the best way forward," Endymion said, extending his hand out towards his father and presenting the data chip. "Take this, and as soon as you get back to your room, look at it. Carefully."

Kasios put his palm out and Endymion gently placed the chip in the center of it. "What is it?"

"It's how we get out of this," Endymion said simply. "We pay off our debts, we don't sign over territory, and we put this whole thing behind us."

Kasios closed his eyes, his dismissive annoyance overt. "Son, if there was any way to do that, I would have done it. Believe me, you don't serve as a King for decades like I have without knowing every little nuance that there is, so—"

"Dad, I've been working with Kunzite and Zoisite very closely the last few days. We think we've found a way. Zoisite's mastery of business and economics is unparalleled, he has a plan to stimulate a massive amount of capital growth in a short period of time that we can flip to start paying off the investors." He jabbed his finger down at the chip. "It's all there."

"Endymion, there's no way that Zoisite, or anyone in the galaxy, could generate enough creds via business investments to pay these debts," Kasios said. "Now please, just accept the fact that things are going to be suboptimal for awhile, it'll be my burden to carry."

"No, it isn't." He glanced down at the chip, then back up to his father. "Now, you go back to your room, you look at that, and you get back to me. We're going to figure this out. And in the meantime, you're not to give away any territory to anyone, no matter what."

Kasios almost chuckled. "Endymion, I hate to break it to you, but I'm still the King, so—"

"Not one blade of grass, not one speck of dirt, not one drop of water," Endymion continued. "I'm serious, dad. There's another way, we have to try it. Promise me."

Kasios blinked rapidly, looking down at the data chip in his hand. "Son, I...aw, look, when I told you about this, it wasn't my intention for you to feel like you needed to get involved and try to fix this, some things...they can't be fixed."

"Dad." Endymion leaned in a bit towards the High King. "Promise me."

"Ah, look...I'll look at it, okay?" Kasios said, quickly shoving the chip into his pocket. "I promise, I'll look at what you've got, let you know what I think. That's all you're getting from me. And if somehow, you've enslaved a powerful djinn, or one of your generals has started mysteriously having massive pink diamond sculptures come out in their stool, then great, the day is saved! But short of that, you're getting your hopes up for nothing."

"Just look it over," Endymion said sternly, turning away and motioning towards Kunzite. The white-haired general hit the panel to open the hatch of the ship, and both men began marching away.

Kasios slowly developed a frown, staring at Endymion's retreating back. His right hand reached up to his left side pocket, feeling the data chip. He let out a sad, slow sigh.

"

"Well, I have to give him a lot of points for creativity," Kasios said under his breath, eyes down on a large black tablet in his lap, rapidly scrolling through a series of detailed slides with graphs of all shapes and sizes. "It's persuasive, too. One thing you can say for sure, my son _really_ doesn't want to hand over any land."

"Of course he doesn't!" Queen Serenity said, leaning over the High King's shoulders and looking down at the columns of numbers and figures she didn't even bother trying to understand. "This is the closest thing to hardship he's ever had to deal with in his life!"

Kasios's mouth tensed. "Sure."

"I mean, no offense, he's a good boy and all, and I'm thrilled that my daughter loves him so much, but...twenty years of life, he hasn't known so much as a hint of war, nothing but a booming economy and a full treasury, every girl in the galaxy swooning over him, four incredible generals serving his every whim, charmed doesn't even begin to describe it." The elder Serenity shrugged. "He gets one taste of something maybe going wrong. For the first time in his life, everything isn't falling into his lap. And he just won't stand for it."

Kasios set the tablet down. "Well, I suppose this is better than what Cromia did when she was told that we had lost the battle of Pausanias."

Serenity squinted her forehead in thought for a few beats. "Cromia, I...not sure I know about that one."

"Not many do, it's a bit of an embarrassment," Kasios said wryly. "Poor bastard who got roped into delivering the message, she just hurled him right off the balcony."

Queen Serenity couldn't help but let out a shocked little gasp. "Oh, I...I mean, was he...did he…"

"Oh, splattered all over, like a watermelon," Kasios said. "The thing is, she wasn't really that bad of a person. So people said, anyway, not like I'd know, three hundred years before I was born." He tilted the tablet up, looking at the data chip in the side. "At least Endymion's trying to fix the problem."

"He's just being selfish," Serenity said, crouching down next to the King. "He can't stand the idea of having his birthright be damaged, that's all he can see. Everyone else, we all know, you did what you had to do. You did what needed to be done for the good of the galaxy. He just doesn't understand, sometimes you have to make sacrifices."

He nodded listlessly. "Maybe."

"No, no maybe!" she protested.

"I've never really seen Endymion like this," Kasios mused. "Just...upset, stressed, aggressive, confrontational. This is what it takes to get to him, I guess."

"Hey, don't let him get to you." She pointed behind the King, towards the door back out to the main hall. "He loves you. He does. He always will. He's just angry."

"Yes, he's...he's certainly angry," Kasios mused. "Angry...and right."

"W-what, no," Serenity said, shaking off a bit of confusion. "He's not right, of course he's not right!"

"No, no." Kasios squinted down at the tablet screen in front of him. "It's not that simple. He's...he's right, I didn't have to do this. There had to be another way, I...I sold out the Kingdom that I've sworn to look over so everyone else could feel safer." He winced. "And all these years, just sitting there, knowing that disaster was looming, barely lifting a finger to protect against it. No, that's...I could have done more. Could have done things differently."

"You were trying to save the galaxy from an imminent threat. Sometimes there isn't a perfect solution, just the best one you can find," Serenity assured him.

"I'm sure a better solution was out there somewhere," Kasios mumbled. "Gods, I don't know anymore. Maybe there was another way. Hundred years from now, if they write about this in the history books, they'll say I sold out the Kingdom I was supposed to be in charge of so every other Kingdom could be protected, that's the opposite of what a King should do!"

Serenity inhaled slowly. "You had good reasons for doing what you did. Besides, what does it matter? You said it yourself, in a few years the deep space program will start paying off, you'll be flush with capital again, and we just get it all back to the way it was!"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure, maybe. Hopefully. As if I know. Could be decades, centuries, there's no way to know right now. Might be never. Might be too late by the time it does." He rubbed his forehead. "Endymion was right, a splintered Kingdom doesn't come back together easily."

"That's not going to happen!" Serenity said. "What, you think a bunch of wealthy merchants are going to get a piece of Earth territory and declare war on you? That's not happening!"

"You know, he actually met me in the hanger, right after I docked," Kasios said, swallowing hard between sentences. "Just had to make sure he got to me before I could sign away any territory. He gave me all this." He gestured down at the tablet. "And even then, even now, with everything that's happened, I just went right to the old...hey, stay out of it, I'll handle it, I'll figure it all out, you just don't worry about it, it's all on me." He chuckled. "The same old spiel. I got this, I got this, I got this. I'll do it all myself. When it's plain as day that I don't and I can't. Maybe none of this would have happened if I still had an advisor to temper me. Most Kings have that, but I just...no, who needs one, I can do it all. And even now, someone offers me help, and I turn it down out of habit."

Serenity grimaced, looking down at the carpet underneath Kasios's chair.

"And the funny thing is...you know what's really bad, Serenity?" He turned to look at the Queen of the Moon. "All of this stuff happening in the last several days, now maybe getting handed a solution, trying to figure out if it's viable, weighing things...I can barely keep my mind on it." He pointed up at the ceiling. "My thoughts keep getting pulled to agency business. As we speak, I keep thinking about something that happened when I was up there today. Can't even really focus on these charts. No matter what I tell myself, what happens up there just seems more...important."

"What you do up there is important," Serenity said. "There's nothing wrong with that."

"Right now, there is," Kasios said begrudgingly. "Serenity, I'm not the King I used to be. Or maybe I never was the King I thought I was, I'm not sure. I shouldn't have let this happen, and I shouldn't have let things get this bad." He closed his eyes. "I can really see it now. High King of Earth, and on the high council of the agency, it's really starting to become too much. Might have always been too much. But it wasn't until today that I could even consider admitting it." He sighed deeply. "I think my time on the throne is coming to an end. Needs to come to an end."

Serenity frowned. "Kasios, I don't see how that would help. Whatever mistakes you've made, do you honestly believe your son could be a better King than you?"

"I know my son's shortcomings as well as anyone," Kasios said quietly. "Maybe he doesn't have everything you'd want in a King, but...he's smart. Very smart, smarter than me. And he's got a good heart. He's a good person. The rest, he'll have to figure out. And he'll have four excellent generals helping him."

"Sheltered. Spoiled." The Queen shrugged. "I wouldn't exactly count on him to be able to make tough decisions."

"Maybe." Kasios suddenly got to his feet. "But I'm not exactly hitting the target lately on my tough decisions, so who am I to judge?" He nodded. "Yes, I...I should focus my attention on agency work, leave the Kingdom in the hands of someone who will only have its best interests in mind. Sooner, rather than later."

"How soon?" Serenity asked. "I...I just really don't see it with him yet, maybe in a few years—"

"As soon as I'm able to do it with a clear conscience," Kasios answered thoughtfully. "I don't want to just drop the consequences of my mistakes on him, but...if we can get clear of imminent danger, keep the Kingdom in one piece...then I think it'll be time to step down. A few cycles, maybe, we'll have an idea of how viable his little investment scheme is, and then I'll make a decision."

Serenity slowly nodded. "It's your decision to make, of course."

"Yes," Kasios replied. "I think it's about time to toss him in the deep end, see how he swims. Whatever happens, at least he'll have the best interests of the Earth in mind at all times."


	40. Pull The Thread

Chapter 40: Pull The Thread

Kunzite quickly moved down the narrow, carpeted hallway, a massive, levitating luggage container following right behind him. Identical green doors lined the walls on both sides of him, stretching all the way down to the other side, each one marked by a gold-plated number, counting up as he moved down the path.

The cautious part of him hated how fragile this relationship felt. There were so many opportunities for something to go wrong. He knew that they didn't have a choice in the matter, but having so much outside of his control couldn't help but rub him the wrong way. And it wasn't as if he knew very much about Princess Venus personally, so her competence and trustworthiness were things he could only cross his fingers on. He couldn't even audit her processes. Just had to pray she knew what she was doing.

Before long, he was standing in front of door 1022. With a settling breath, he reaching forward and rapped his knuckles on the wood. He waited for several beats, constantly paying attention to the hall on either side of him, before losing patience. He repeated the knocks, then pressed his ear to the door. Nothing. Finally, he reached down and gave the doorknob a test, finding it easily giving and twisting open. He hissed under his breath, unhappy to find yet another weakness in the security around this recurring transaction.

He stepped inside, finding a typical luxury apartment within. Elaborate, clean kitchen to his left, hallway leading to the smaller, specialized rooms to his right, and a general recreation room spread out in front of him. He didn't particularly care about any of the details of the apartment, and dismissed it all as soon as he didn't see Princess Venus anywhere. The luggage container followed the large Earth general into the room, and he swiftly closed the door behind him.

"Hello?" he called out, masking his annoyance at how laissez faire the Princess seemed to be about this.

"Back here!" a feminine voice immediately called back. Kunzite wasn't expecting such an immediate response and instinctively dropped into a defensive stance for a brief moment. He couldn't help but briefly contemplate this being a trap of some sort, but quickly dismissed the thought and went down the hall to his right.

In short order, he got to a white door to his left, finding it slightly ajar and light peeking through the crack. He pushed it open, finding a white-tiled bathing chamber inside. Most of the room was taken up by a large basin sunk into the floor, currently filled with water with a top layer of white soap suds. Princess Venus's head and shoulders were visible above the soap, her arms spread out behind her. Her left hand was resting right next to a half-empty glass bottle of a red liquid and a round, fat glass, and her right hand held a thick, brown cigar, a thin wisp of smoke rising to the ceiling from the tip.

Kunzite could only give a wry, unamused look.

"Afternoon," Venus called out, raising her right hand over towards the Earth general. "No problems?"

"Ah...nothing significant," Kunzite answered, figuratively biting his tongue. "The front door was unlocked."

"Well, I didn't want you to have to kick the door down," Venus said innocently, putting the long cigar into her mouth and gently puffing into it, sending plumes of smoke up towards the whirring fan above her head.

"That's a filthy habit," Kunzite couldn't help but note, watching the tip of the cigar flare up with an orange glow each time the Princess blew into the other end. "Where'd you pick that up?"

"Father," she answered dismissively. "Him and his inner circle love them." She twirled the cigar around in her fingers. "They do help take the edge off after a long day of listening to my mother, I have to admit." She looked at the smouldering tip of the cigar. "So, here's to feeling good all the time."

"I have the imperium," Kunzite said, gesturing over towards the luggage container in the hallway, which had settled down into the carpet. "You'll want to check it, I presume."

She shrugged. "At this point, I trust you. It's not in anyone's best interest for you to stiff me, and I think you know that." Her face suddenly blanked. "Oh!" With a sloshing splash, she jumped into a standing position and vaulted out of the tub. "Your money!"

Kunzite couldn't help but flinch as Venus exposed her nude body above the water line, perfectly-curved figure dripping wet. Entirely unshy, Minako rose to her full height and casually approached Kunzite. The Earth general quickly swung out of the way, reaching over to grab a fluffy white towel off a rack on the wall and whisking it in front of the Princess. She grabbed it, quickly wrapping it around her head to cover up her golden blonde hair, which was soaked as well. She ran back out into the main room of the apartment, quickly falling to her knees in front of one of the reclining chairs.

Kunzite slowly came out of the hallway, watching as she pulled a satchel out from under the cushion, the cigar tightly clenched between her teeth.

"Do you have somewhere you need to be?" Venus asked, speech slightly impeded by the object in her mouth.

"Does it matter if I do?" Kunzite asked flatly.

"Oh, was wondering if you might be open to hanging around for a bit," Venus asked casually, strapping the satchel closed and hoisting it up over her shoulder, getting back to her feet and pulling the cigar from her mouth.

"For what purpose?" Kunzite continued to question.

"I-I have questions," Venus said. "I don't know if you know this or not, but you're something of a significant historical figure on my planet."

"I'm not even from your planet," Kunzite countered. "I spent two years there to train, that's all. If you know that much, then you know it all."

"Train, _and_ irreparably alter the gene pool of the entire Siddons Patera territory in your free time," she snarked. "Come on, your Prince isn't here, it's just us two, you can be honest." She went up to the couch, putting her knees up on the cushions and pushing her body into the backrest, eyes trained on the white-haired Earth general.

Kunzite bit his cheek, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You've probably got...seventy bastard children running around Venus—"

"That's absurd," Kunzite protested. "I was always very careful."

"So you admit it?" Venus asked tauntingly.

"I actually _do_ have some place I need to be," Kunzite said abruptly. "So, Your Highness, if I may." He reached his right arm out towards her, beckoning with his fingers.

Venus sighed, but after a moment tossed the satchel over towards him, the sack landing at his feet. He bent down to pick it up.

"Next time, then," Venus said.

"I'm a very busy person, Your Majesty," Kunzite said, turning away from her and marching towards the door. "And so are you."

In short order, Kunzite left the room, promptly closing the door firmly behind him. Princess Venus immediately scowled, looking down at the lit cigar in her hand with a look of disgust, sticking her tongue out. Slowly, she reached up to grab the towel covering her hair, whipping it off and discarding it to the floor.

"

Kunzite slid through the marble white doors, slapping them shut behind him. All six people already in the modestly-sized, high-ceiling dining chamber looked up from the shining-white table they were gathered around.

"Sorry I'm late," Kunzite said quickly.

"You're not, we're just about to start," High King Kasios assured him, seated at the head of the long, slim table. Kunzite quickly surmised the situation in the room. To Kasios's right, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity sat. And on the High King's left, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Jadeite were lined up. The elder general judged his presence would be best served on his right, to balance the table out, and quickly walked up on that side.

Jadeite reached forward, grabbing a green bottle from the table and tearing the foil off the top of it. "Alright then, shall we?"

"Right, so, I have an announcement to make, like I said," Kasios said. "I figured the best way to handle it would be to round up all involved parties and tell everyone at once, in a controlled environment. Obviously, everything said here is highly confidential."

A loud pop interrupted the High King, as Jadeite coaxed a cork out of the bottle's top, getting it to shoot out towards the ceiling. Before it could hit anything and cause any damage or chaos, Jadeite froze it mid-air with a quick point up towards it, then allowed it to harmlessly fall to the table surface, bouncing around a few times before resting on its side. A quick burst of foam poured from the mouth of the bottle, and Jadeite began pouring it into a series of tall, thin glasses.

"But first—"

Endymion cleared his throat. "U-uh, dad, before anything else, actually, I wanted to say something."

Kasios shrugged. "Sure."

"Well...look, dad, obviously things have been frustrating recently. We've all been under some stress, and...okay, just speaking for myself here. I've definitely said some things that were disrespectful and unnecessary. Whatever...whatever decisions you've made, and however much I might disagree with some of them, um...there was no need for any of that. And I'm sorry."

Jadeite silently sent a collecting of filled wine glasses gliding across the table, each one gently coming to rest in front of someone, until all seven had one.

"I love you, and we're both on the same side at the end of the day. And we should work together. So, uh...some of the things I've said lately, I shouldn't have said them. You're a great King, and I'm sure that you did what you believed to be the best thing possible at the time."

"I mean, that doesn't make it right," Kasios said with an animated little shrug. "Um, son, while we're sharing, I want to say, I'm sorry. I messed up. I was in a difficult situation, but I'm sure there was a better solution than what I did. And my mistakes, I'm not the only one who pays for them. You're affected, your generals are affected, the whole planet, even the entire galaxy, everyone gets affected. So, me saying that I'm willing to live with the consequences of my actions, that's not...that's not right. It's not that localized." He put his hands up onto his chest. "I'm sorry. This mess that we're in, I'm sure it was avoidable. And it's all on me."

"Well, we'll find a way through. Together," Endymion said.

"Yes, about that, I want to say. Your little scheme to fix this, I've looked it over a few times. It's certainly optimistic, I wouldn't bet my life on it, but...well, we should give it a shot. You've got a chance, and that's enough. If there's a chance, we should try. So, you've got my blessing." He looked up, bending over a bit to look at Zoisite. "If you can actually pull off everything in that plan, then you're even more brilliant than I expected when I brought you into the palace."

"I won't disappoint, Your Highness," Zoisite said quietly, reaching forward towards the glass that Jadeite had placed in front of him. "Now, am I going to regret drinking this?"

"It's quite gentle," Endymion assured him, watching his wife tentatively pull her own glass towards her. "You'll like it too."

"Anyway," Kasios said. "So, your bold little business plan, we're going to try it. And that's not all." He put his hands out to either side of him. "Now, here's the part everyone _really_ needs to keep a lid on." He cleared his throat. "We're going to try it, and...okay, let me be clear about something."

Everyone else at the table leaned in a bit, drinks temporarily forgotten as they hung on his words.

"I don't want you, or anyone else, to have to inherit the fallout of my mistakes," Kasios said slowly. "That's not fair on you. So, if worst comes to worst over the next few cycles, and I have to split the planet, then I'm going to fix it. Me, not you. You'll help if possible, but it's on me. So, if I end up having to give up territory, then I'm going to stay on, and I'm going to devote every moment of my life to finding a way to get it back. I'm not going to drop this in your lap and run off to my retirement manor on Mercury. That's not how I do things. When you take the throne, you'll be ruling over the entire planet. Whatever it takes."

Endymion suppressed a small grimace. "Well, with any luck, it'll never come to that. So for now, let's focus on making sure that it doesn't."

"Right, well, that's the other half of this." Kasios reached forward to take his glass, taking a quick drink out of it before continuing. "If things go well, if your little plan works out, and we can actually get ourselves out of the imminent danger zone and get on a good, stable path...then the way I see it, you've earned it. I'll step down and pass the crown on to you."

Endymion flinched, needing a couple moments to digest that, mouth clenching as he glanced away. A noticeable hush went over the table. "That's...wow. Alright, uh, that's something."

"I've been thinking a lot recently," Kasios continued. "And I think recent events have proven that I just can't always have the best interests of the Earth in mind. And while I stand by that on moral grounds, it's not fair to Earth. A Kingdom needs a King that will prioritize it above everything else. And, all that aside, I've messed things up badly enough to where stepping down is probably the right thing to do."

Endymion blinked rapidly a few times. "I suppose that...it was just a matter of time. But I can't deny that I'm surprised to hear it."

"Again, this isn't me causing a bunch of damage and running away to let someone else fix it, this happens _only_ if the planet remains whole. And if things do go poorly over the next few cycles, then I'm going to devote myself to putting the Kingdom back together. It'll be my number one priority, with no caveats." Kasios thought for a moment. "But I have to say, I'm actually feeling rather optimistic about things after going over those projections you gave me."

"Um…" Princess Serenity leaned forward, looking up towards the High King. "How are you going to do that? You've got all your responsibilities with the agency."

Kasios shrugged. "At that point, if I have to, I'll resign from my position on the high council."

"Oh," Zoisite gulped out, unable to stop himself from verbalizing a small reaction to that statement.

"B-but...the agency is so important to you!" Serenity protested. "You can't just...resign!"

"I don't want to," Kasios admitted. "But maybe that's what it'll take to force myself to realize what I need to be doing. I don't want to be remembered as the King who ruined everything, this Kingdom has belonged to our family for a thousand years now. So, whatever it takes." He turned back to Endymion. "I just wanted to let you know now. My understanding is that you should be done with the apprenticeship at Galen Labs in the next few cycles, so after that's wrapped up, we'll evaluate things. If I think we're stable, the crown is yours."

Endymion inhaled slowly, heavily weighing his words. "Well, dad. I'm not going to pretend that this is anything less than a massive deal, and I'm certainly not going to act like it's going to be easy. But, I've been working hard my whole life to prepare for this, and I'm going to step up. If it happens, I won't let you down."

"You'll do great," Kasios assured him, then turning over to look towards Nephrite. "Of course, the moment he takes the throne, the responsibilities for you four go up significantly. Be ready for it." He clapped. "Alright, that's really all I have to say, so let's drink up!"

"

Zoisite laid the small, thin tablet down flat on the table surface, then tapped it. A holographic projection of a detailed timeline sprung up and spanned halfway across Endymion's bedroom, Nephrite and Jadeite quickly looking it over.

"The good news is that we no longer need our acquisitions to make sense for us personally, since the High King understands that we're doing this specifically to make money as fast as possible. So we won't have to worry about telling a good story." Zoisite pointed a small metal rod at a point near the beginning of the hologram. "As soon as Jadeite gets his paperwork cleared with the commissioner, he'll become the majority owner of the Asuba Handball Club. A professional handball team is ideal for laundering, it's a bottom-feeder squad, and the current owner is some regional governor's son who doesn't even like the sport, so it couldn't be more perfect. Nephrite, I've found a struggling technology company that—"

Zoisite trailed off, looking over to his left, observing Princess Serenity closely observing the timeline, hand on her chin.

"...that...um, Your Highness? Princess?" Zoisite said. "I doubt you'll find any of this very interesting."

"Maybe," Serenity muttered. "But I don't have a choice."

"Um…" Zoisite spun around, looking over his shoulder, at the Prince, who was finally noticing Serenity taking an interest in the finer details of the plan. Endymion quickly stepped around his generals, approaching his wife.

"Hey, uh, Serenity, where's Chibiusa?" he asked. "Why don't you go get her? Is she with Delia?"

"Yes," Serenity said dismissively, not taking her eyes off the hologram.

"Serenity, sweetie, you don't...there's no reason for you to know about any of this," Endymion said. "In fact, it's actually better that you don't."

Serenity sighed, finally breaking eye contact with the timeline projection and looking up at her husband. "Endymion, this _has_ to work. Has to. And the more people we have working on it, the better chance it has to work, right? We can't hold anything back, we get one shot at this. So, I have to be part of it."

Endymion grunted. "Oh, Gods...Serenity, come here," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and tugging her over towards the bed. Reluctantly, she came along with him. "Um, carry on!" Endymion said loudly over towards his four generals.

"Endy, I'm serious," Serenity said under her breath. "Zoisite said it, remember? Every single person who you trust needs to be involved in this. Last I checked, you're running low on people like that right now."

"Serenity," Endymion said firmly. "You were never supposed to be a part of any of this. You weren't even supposed to ever know about it."

"Well, I _do_ know about it, which makes me a part of it," Serenity replied tersely.

"...right, well, there's a reason why I didn't want you to know about this," Endymion said. "If things went bad, and I got caught, I didn't want you to get dragged down with me. Now, it's bad enough that you know about this, but if you actually start helping me with covering my tracks?" He swallowed down hard. "No, we...that's not an option. You need to stay as far away as you possibly can. This whole situation has become delicate, I'm not going to pretend this is without risk. And I don't want you to get caught up in it if it goes bad. Whatever happens to me, you need to not get in trouble over this."

Serenity scoffed. "Endy, how do you think that conversation would play out? Oh, gee, I _did_ move out of the Earth Palace for almost a cycle not that long ago for mysterious reasons, and my husband _has_ been spending half his days away from the palace for an 'apprenticeship' even though he has a very young daughter, but, no, it never occurred to me that he might be up to something!" She frowned up at him. "It's too late for that. If you get caught, I would rather the agency think I'm an accomplice than a complete airhead, anyway."

Endymion bowed his head a bit. "Serenity—"

"And either way, Endy, if you get caught, I lose everything. Which we both know. I seem to recall you using that against me," she said, a hint a bitterness in her tone. "You go to prison on _The Savery_ , the merger gets called off, the Moon Kingdom falls to pieces in ten years, remember? So if you're looking for someone you can trust, you're looking right at her!" She spread her arms out to her sides. "I couldn't turn you in even if I wanted to."

The Earth Prince rubbed his upper lip, getting a little exasperated. "Serenity, this really isn't something that...I don't think you'd be able to help very much. Let my generals handle this." He glanced over at his four generals out of the corner of his eye, observing that they were paying attention to Zoisite's lecture and not his dispute with Serenity. "This is what they're here for, and they're well-equipped for it. It's all...numbers, and math, and counting, and filling out paperwork, you'd hate it. I can think of a million things that you'd rather be doing."

"Well, you're not thinking very hard, then," Serenity countered. "Because I can think of a billion things. But, I don't have a choice. I need this to work just as much as you do. You lose, I lose." She thought for a brief moment. "And your father, I don't want him to have to resign from the council. That position means so much to him, if he had to let it go it'd...it'd be crushing."

Endymion's forehead knitted together. "That's...that's not your concern, I...Serenity, please. I feel like I know you pretty well, and...business, economics, accounting, I just don't think that's you. You want to help me—"

"Endymion!" she said sharply, getting the four generals across the room to perk up a bit and turn towards her. "You're spending every other day in the lab with Kunzite, so you two are occupied. That leaves three people. The time for thinking about trying to 'protect' me is gone. You want to protect me? Let me help make sure this works."

Endymion clenched his jaw, tossing a glance over towards Zoisite before looking back at Serenity.

"It's either me or your daughter," Serenity added. "And she can only count to five."

"Uh...well…" Gently, he put his hands on Serenity's shoulders and steered her over towards his four generals, still gathered around the hologram. All four of them were giving Serenity some uncomfortable looks. "Zoisite, if there's anything about your plan that can be...improved or expedited with Serenity's help, then she's available."

"Errmmm…" Zoisite stammered. "W-well...Your Highness, um…"

"J-just, try to figure something out," Endymion said. "I'm sure she'll...do a...a good job."

"O-okay then," Zoisite managed, grimacing as he turned to look across the length of the hologram. "I can...I can do that."

"

"Do I even have you tell you that this is an awful idea, Your Highness?" Kunzite asked.

Endymion's personal ship, _The Bastion,_ was gently settling into a docking slot just inside the garage right next to Galen Laboratories, fitting in right between two other Class A starships. Endymion was leaning over, looking out the forward windows as the ship automatically parked itself.

"Because I feel like you know already, and you're doing it anyway. But, if you have any doubts, involving your wife in any of this is a terrible idea. For multiple reasons." Kunzite sat in the frontmost passenger seat of the state-of-the-art starship, watching his charge turn the ship off and remove the starter crystal from the center console.

"Yes, well, I happen to be desperate. And at the very least, we know for a fact she's highly invested in making this work," Endymion countered patiently. "Besides, she has a point. The faster we can generate capital, the more likely we can pay off our debts. Four people is better than three."

"You'd be surprised how often that thinking doesn't pan out," Kunzite mumbled. "Zoisite will do all that he can to put her in a position where she can't make costly mistakes, I'm sure, but having her anywhere close to this is very bad. I—"

Endymion sighed, enough of a prompt to get Kunzite to stop his diatribe.

"One day, Cronus is going to decide he wants us dead more than he wants the money we're making him," the Prince finally said after drawing out the silence. "And we're not going to know the difference, and we're just going to walk right into that laboratory, and be staring down the barrel of a plasma rifle. And there's not going to be anything we can do about it. We both know it's going to happen, one of these days. Maybe today. And there's nothing we can do to prevent it." He turned to look up at Kunzite. "You'll have to forgive me if that impending crisis is more important to me than my wife wanting to feel useful."

Kunzite pressed his lips tightly shut. "Well...that's fair."

"So, what are we doing about _that_?" Endymion asked. "Do we have some sort of exit strategy?"

Kunzite nodded slowly. "I'm working on a possible solution."

"I don't suppose this solution might pan out some time today," Endymion asked tersely. "Say, in the next few secundas?"

"Um...maybe in a few days," Kunzite answered.

"Well. Then I guess we just hope today isn't the day," Endymion said. With a deep, settling breath, he steadied himself, and then went to the other side of the ship to open the side hatch.

"

Kasios plucked the round brown little sphere out of the plastic rack resting on the balcony ledge, holding it up in front of his face and examining it. "No, really, I'm excited to see what you do with the crown. I _hope_ that things work out so I can pass it on to you soon, I mean it. The older I get, the more I want to focus on agency work, nothing would make me happier than to downsize my responsibilities a bit. And I really think you're going to be great."

Endymion scanned the wide stretch of city landscape that could be seen from the back balcony of his bedroom, easily able to see across the entirety of the capital city and beyond. It being night, the city was artificially lit, virtually every building and street brightly illuminated. "I know I'm not everything that a King would ideally be, but—"

"No, no, I don't think like that at all," Kasios said quickly. "You've got what it takes, don't let anybody tell you differently. Honestly, the fact that you've come up with a feasible plan to get us out of debt proves your brilliance, nobody can doubt you if you actually manage to make this work."

"Well, Z-Zoisite came up with...most of that," the Prince muttered, looking behind him back into his bedroom through the glass doors. Serenity was seated at the foot of his bed, Chibiusa in her lap. The Princess was holding flash cards in front of the young toddler.

"Well, he's working for you, so all the same," Kasios said. "But yeah, don't sweat it. Take it seriously if it happens, of course, becoming a King is a huge deal, but don't doubt yourself." He popped the orb of chocolate into his mouth.

"I'll worry about the throne when I'm on it," Endymion said thoughtfully. "Right now, I'm worried about our debts."

"Hey, you should eat some of these," Kasios said, pointing down at the tray of round chocolate treats. "I feel like I'm the only one eating, come on."

Endymion quickly grabbed one of the sweets and put it into his mouth.

"And I want to say again, I'm sorry you have to do any of this," Kasios continued. "It's really not okay for me to let things get to this point, and putting it on you to fix, it...it doesn't sit well with me."

"Dad, it's fine, I understand that things happen," Endymion said quietly, inspired to remain peaceful and non-confrontational by the tranquil nighttime surroundings he found himself in.

"Well, some things shouldn't. And this shouldn't have." Kasios looked a little sheepish. "The fact that I allowed it to is enough to throw my whole legacy in question."

"Oh...I wouldn't go that far," Endymion said, leaning out a bit over the balcony ledge at the streets of the capital city. Kasios stepped over to the glass table behind him, grabbing a dark brown bottle and pouring the contents into a pair of small glasses.

"I would," Kasios said darkly, taking both glasses in either hand and taking them over to the ledge, extending the left one out to his son. "And if things go poorly, then so will historians."

Endymion took the glass in his right hand without looking over, still just casually staring down at the view.

"So, we're alone, right?" Kasios asked, looking around the balcony.

Endymion raised his eyebrows, turning to look at his father as he craned his head up to look up the palace wall towards the roof. "I'm sorry?"

"Nobody else listening? Private conversation we're having?" Kasios continued.

"U-uh...as far as I know, why?" Endymion asked, giving the most confused of stares as Kasios leaned over the ledge and peered downward, as if he was looking for something underneath the lip of the balcony.

"Alright, I didn't come up here tonight just to stroke your ego," Kasios said, rising back up to his full height after satisfying himself with his cursory examination of his surroundings. "I was actually going to ask for your help on something." He put his right hand out towards his son. "Now, believe me, I get it, you're already helping me an awful lot right now, I shouldn't be asking you for shit, but I don't know who else to turn to."

Endymion took a sip from the drink his father had just poured, finding a thick, rich, cold liquid. "Well, dad, I seriously doubt I'll be able to bring myself to say no."

Kasios smiled. "It's not going to be anything too big, but...very, very private. Everything I'm about to tell you, stays between you and me. Serenity, Kunzite, no reason for them to know about this. Got it?"

Endymion scritched his left hand's nails along the back of his head. "Uh, fine, what's up?"

Kasios cleared his throat. "Alright. Stay with me here. You're going to think I'm joking at first, so let me explain how I got here before you dismiss it." He turned to square up with his son, who was resting his forearms on the stone ledge of the balcony again. "I think that Cronus, of Soranus Pharmaceuticals and Galen Labs, is a black market imperium dealer."

 _Chunk!_

The bulb-shaped glass in Endymion's right hand didn't have a chance, as his fingers were quite suddenly highly insistent on making a fist. Both of his hands balled up reflexively, reducing the expensive glassware to a mismatched collection of shards and a loose splash of liquid. Most of it went over the edge and plummeted down to the lawn below, some of it resting on the ledge. Endymion lurched forward, whole body tightening up.

"Whoa!" Kasios said, reaching over and grabbing his son's shoulders. "S-son, you okay?!"

As quickly as he had clenched up, the Prince forced himself to relax, turning to avert his gaze from his father to better disguise his emotions. "U-uh…" He straightened his posture up. "S-sorry, dad, I must have misheard you." He held his right hand open and looked down at it, checking for any cuts from the glass.

"G-guess I should have told you to sit down first," Kasios said, trying to crane his head up to look over Endymion's shoulder. "You alright?"

"Y-yeah, yes," Endymion said, blinking furiously. "N-nothing, nothing wrong, just...I think I didn't hear you right."

"You heard right. I believe that Cronus is illegally distributing imperium. In fact, I suspect he might be _the_ imperium distributor. The one distributing the ultra-pure product that's been attributed to 'Tuxedo Mask' over the last year. Quite possibly, he's also the distributor whose been operating for the last decade across the galaxy."

The Crown Prince took a settling breath, then spun around to face his father. "Dad, I...I, where's this coming from? I...you like Cronus, a lot! You introduced me to him, I...what could make you think something like _that_?!"

"Calm down, calm down," Kasios said gently. "I know it sounds crazy, and as recently as half a cycle ago, the thought would never have crossed my mind." He wryly glanced over at the little pieces of glass resting on the ledge. "Didn't really expect you to react like _that_."

"U-uh, it's just a...shocking thing to say," Endymion mumbled. "I mean, that...h-how do you figure?"

Kasios rubbed his hands together, grimacing. "Recently, there was a strange incident out in space, just past Neptune's orbit. Cronus's lead scientist, woman named Viluy, was found dead. Murdered, it seemed. You probably saw it in the news."

Endymion could feel the bottom fall out of his stomach, and he quickly leaned back up over the balcony ledge to conceal his facial expressions from his father.

"So, Viluy's body was found with a bunch of these sealed barrels. We opened them up, found these fake crystals. Worthless, but they seemed to be made to _resemble_ pure imperium. Now, on top of that, Viluy was carrying an imperium reader with her. Fancy one. Add it all up, and I'm thinking that this was some sort of hit carried out by a smaller distributor, trying to disrupt the supply chain of a bigger fish, and get their hands on the best possible product. Or, maybe, there's been some sort of falling out between 'Tuxedo Mask' and his distributor, and Viluy ended up dead over it." Kasios looked over at Serenity, still occupied with her daughter. "Either way, it's not as if Viluy would have been doing it all on her own. If she was involved, Cronus was too."

"Oh...gee, dad, seems like a bit of a reach," Endymion said nervously, feeling sweat start to bead inside of his shirt. "Cronus...his business interests are so massive, there could be a thousand explanations for him doing anything. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."

"Oh, yes, there is," Kasios said. "We had Cronus called on board _The Savery_ to give his side of the story."

Endymion fingers were digging hard into the stone ledge now. "O-oh...uh...w-what happened?"

"Oh, he spun a nice little narrative. Had an answer ready for everything, everything he said checked out, all of it made sense." Kasios nodded. "Put everyone's mind at ease. When he left, Grandmaster Galen couldn't have been more convinced."

Endymion's long, slender fingers found their way up to the collar of his shirt, and he roughly clutched it, keeling over a bit over the rail. "I...well, then what?"

Kasios raised an eyebrow. "Son, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah!" Endymion muttered. "I'm just surprised, I've...I've met Cronus quite a few times now, he doesn't seem t-the type at all." Endymion pushed back off the rail, trying desperately to project comfort.

"Oh, I agree," Kasios admitted. "Doesn't seem like the type at all. Obscenely rich businessman, genius scientist, faithful ally of the agency, impeccably polite and professional. Last guy you'd ever expect to involve himself in one of the most illegal things in the galaxy."

"T-that's what I mean," Endymion said, putting a thin smile on his lips that was the furthest thing from genuine. "He's got all that money from Soranus, it wouldn't make any sense to get into something like this."

"You'd think that."

"A-and you said it yourself, he...he explained himself, right?" Endymion shrugged. "I don't know, dad, I'm not telling you how to do your job. You're the one who's been on the council hunting imperium smugglers all these years. But you said it yourself, he explained himself in a way that made sense."

"It made sense," Kasios acknowledged. "Doesn't make it true."

"So...you're saying it's not?" Endymion asked.

"I'm saying that I'm not satisfied yet. Admittedly, I'm on an island on that one, everyone else in the agency considers this a closed matter. But think about it, huh? Soranus is the _perfect_ cover for a galaxy-wide distribution network. You have transportation, storage, a perfect excuse to acquire as many chemicals and materials as you need, it couldn't be better."

"You could...easily say the same for Discus Wholesale, or Mercius Jewelers, or dozens of other large corporations that span the galaxy," Endymion reasoned.

"And who is Cronus, really?" Kasios continued. "What do we know about him? Did you know that there's _no_ record of him existing until about eleven years ago? No birth certificate, no youth academy attendance, it's as if he had just appeared out of thin air one day as a middle-aged genius. A guy that smart and savvy, where'd he come from?"

"W-well, he's from Saturn, isn't he? Most of their records have been destroyed in the war, a...a lot of people from Saturn don't have a traceable history." Endymion shrugged as casually as he could manage. "Look, I'm not trying to go over the top defending the guy, I don't know him that well, but it just strikes me as a real reach."

"If it makes you feel any better, the agency agrees with you," Kasios said grimly. "I tried to float the possibility of an investigation, but it got shot down quickly. They're all completely satisfied with what he said, and they don't want to step on someone who's been such a big ally for them for years. So, nothing's going to happen. On their end, at least."

Endymion gave a sharp, tight nod. "Y-yeah, so...w-wait, you said you wanted my help?"

Cronus gestured his left hand over towards his son. "Right. Well, I can't get the agency to assist with this. Can't use any of their assets, resources, money, all off the table. But, I figure, as long as I've got a son working on an apprenticeship in his laboratory, maybe that'll get me a closer look at him on my _own_ time."

Endymion's entire body clenched up again, and he felt as if his temples were pulsing.

"So, here's what I need, son," the King continued, reaching into his pocket and sidling up next to him. "You're doing work in his lab, what is it, every other day, basically? I know you see him sometimes. How often does he come around, you think?"

The Earth Prince observed his father remove a tiny glass cube with a small marble inside of it from his pocket.

"Endymion?"

Endymion shook his head back and forth rapidly. "S-sorry, I...oh, not that often. Maybe once a cycle, at most. There's no need for him to ever be there, sometimes he just...swings by to say hello."

"Well, here's what I'm thinking." He held up the glass cube. "This marble is coated with a substance called taiorium, entirely unremarkable outside of being radioactive. Harmless, benign, doesn't do anything except emit a specific signature that can be picked up on satellite scans."

Endymion almost audibly gulped, as he started to realize where his father was going.

"So, next time you see Cronus at the labs, just shake his hand. Shouldn't be hard to come up with an excuse for it. But, before you do it, open the case and rub your palm on the marble. The taiorium will transfer to you, and then when you shake Cronus's hand, to him." Kasios put the cube out towards Endymion, right in front of his chest. "He won't have any idea what you did. It's not visible, no odor, nothing like that. And then, I'll be able to track his movements by following the signature via satellite, maybe he'll go somewhere that he shouldn't be. Give me something to work with in convincing the agency to investigate."

The Prince just stared down at the clear container, eyes wide and heart pumping hard.

"W-what's the matter? Take it, it's...it's not gonna bite. I promise it's not dangerous, I've been carrying it around in my pocket for the last minuta, I wouldn't do that if—"

"D-dad, Cronus is a scientist, he...he spends a ton of time in his labs, he's...it's not going to work, he'll find out that he's emitting a radioactive signature and get rid of it within a day!" Endymion protested, relieved that his panicked brain had been able to come up with a reasonable excuse. "It won't work!"

"Maybe a day is all I need," Kasios pointed out. "I don't need much, just one location that he shouldn't be at, one shady person he meets, and I'll be able to go from there. I've got limited resources, this is the best shot I've got."

"Okay, but...dad, I'm really not comfortable with this, it's putting me in a really awkward situation," Endymion said, still staring down at the marble without taking it. "Cronus is a smart person, he could easily realize it was me, and I wouldn't be able to—"

"Endymion, come on!" Kasios interrupted. "Don't make me beg. You said it yourself, he spends a lot of time in laboratories, he'll just assume his hand got exposed to something and shrug it off." He leaned forward, bracing his other hand on Endymion's back. "Now, please, you're all I've got. I can't do it, he'll see me coming a mile away now. I need your help."

Endymion slowly exhaled, glancing at his father's judgemental face, then back at the marble.

"Nothing bad's going to happen," he insisted. "Worst-case scenario, he gets decontaminated before I can learn something useful. After you're done, all you have to do is expose your hand to some concentrated Cobalt rays, and it'll be like the taiorium never existed, no way to trace it back to you. You'll be the last thing he suspects."

Endymion grimaced.

"Hey, you might be a High King in a few cycles. Don't tell me you're scared of a businessman," Kasios goaded.

Endymion slowly reached up, clutching the glass cube between his fingers and removing it from Kasios's grip. He looked down at the marble, stomach positively bubbling as he tilted the cube about to let it roll around.

"Thanks, son, this means a lot to me. I just...I have a feeling, you know? I really, really feel in my gut that this is my guy. Honestly, I think this is the guy the agency has been chasing for the last ten years, but...I need to be able to bring something real to the other council members. And I can't just forget about it and ignore my gut, so you're really helping me out here. Don't know what I would do otherwise."

"Uh, no...no problem, dad," Endymion said tersely. "I'm happy to help, but...really, I _really_ think you're off on this one. Cronus...I just don't see it."

"My mother used to say, when you're looking for something, check the last place you'd think it would be," Kasios mused, clapping his hand on Endymion's left shoulder. "In all my years of life, not once has that worked for me. Maybe this is the time."

He departed towards the door back into Endymion's bedroom, leaving the Prince standing there with the sealed-up marble in his hand, looking rather dazed and distressed.

"Actually, you know, it feels so much better just being able to talk about this with somebody!" Kasios added, turning back around to face his son. "Thanks for that, too, I...it's been killing me. I can't say any of this to anyone with the agency, I'll just get in trouble. And obviously, it's a security breach to divulge this to anyone else, so...I've just been keeping all this to myself. Getting this off my chest feels great!"

"N-no problem," Endymion managed, getting out a weak wave as Kasios left, pulling open the balcony doors. The moment the High King was out of the immediate area, Endymion's face fell, and he resumed staring down at the marble, feeling his pulse throbbing in his neck.


	41. Outlet

Chapter 41: Outlet

AN: As of the most recent chapter, this is now officially the longest story I've ever written, both in chapter count and word count. So I want to say thank you to everyone who has stayed with me for all these months. It means a lot to me, and I feel honored to have had so many people stick with me through 40 chapters.

"

"Did you ever think you'd see the day?" Nephrite tossed the lid of the large silver suitcase open, a cleanly-folded white jumpsuit inside. He grabbed the collar and pulled it up in front of him. "Me, majority owner of a tech company?"

Kunzite gently pushed one of the black joysticks on the center console of _The Falconeri_ to the left, getting the ship to twist slightly. Out in the middle of deep space, hanging dormant, the Class A starship was casually drifting about, a few million dolichos away from Mars.

"It's not that unreasonable," Kunzite replied, tapping a button on the console to bring an overlay up on the front windshield. "You might even call it predictable. Unqualified son of a wealthy family, those sorts of people always end up owning a big company and hiring smart people to actually do all the work."

"Hey, somebody has to count the money," Nephrite countered, unzipping the back side of the jumpsuit.

"Just let Zoisite drive things." Kunzite turned away from the front window, looking back at his fellow Earth general. "He was born for something like this."

"Maybe, but I'm worried about him," Nephrite said. "He's working himself so hard to keep everything running, doing the work of ten people by himself. He might be smart enough for it, but that doesn't mean he can actually do it without burning himself out."

"We'll deal with that issue if it becomes one," Kunzite said. "Okay, remember, if anything goes wrong down on Deimos, we abort. No improvisation, no guesswork, either we stick to the plan or there is no plan."

"I'm pretty confident in my ability to plant a few explosives, you've got the hard part of this," Nephrite said.

Kunzite pulled back the left side of his uniform, reaching his right hand into the pocket on the side of it and pulling out a small pistol made of wood. "It's a bit of a—"

A little trilling sound interrupted the conversation, Kunzite twisting his head back over towards the center console. A little blue light was blinking from the top of it.

"Hold on," Kunzite said, quickly walking up to the front of the ship and leaning over the main controls. A second, identical trill sound started, but before it could finish Kunzite pressed a button along the top edge of the panel. "Hello?"

"Go home, Kunzite."

It was as if all the air got sucked out of the room instantly. Nephrite blanched, staring up towards the center console where the voice had come from. Kunzite's shoulders drooped, and the moment the call was disconnected, he reflexively leaned forward to look out the front window, trying to find something out in space.

"What the—" Nephrite muttered, dashing over to the left side of the ship and looking out the window there.

Kunzite quickly powered the ship back on, mashing away at the dashboard. "Aborting," he said under his breath, the ship's engines springing to life. As fast as he could safely do it, Kunzite swung _The Falconeri_ around to the right, then punched in a jump. Within mere beats of receiving the call, the ship screamed forward through space, ripping across the galaxy back towards Earth.

"

Kunzite stabbed the tip of the steel rod into the small recess of the rectangular red box, tapping the other end of it to prompt the tip to rapidly spin to the left. A large screw spun free from the box, falling to the floor with a gentle clink after several rotations, leaving Kunzite free to open the top of the box to expose a collection of neat wiring.

Nephrite, with a grunt and no small amount of effort, ripped a heavy sheet of steel armor off the side of the partially-deconstructed _Falconeri_ , exposing the inner shell of the starship.

"They bugged my ship once, we know that," Kunzite grunted, carefully pushing the wiring to the sides in order to look behind it. "However they managed it, we never figured it out."

"Cronus has spies inside the palace?" Nephrite questioned. "That's what it would take." He jammed a crowbar-like object in between the next armor plate and the inner shell, a flood of sparks spitting from the end of the tool as the armor was slowly detached.

"I can't put anything past him," Kunzite called out loudly. "And how else could he have done that? How else could he know to contact me at that exact moment?"

A violent, shuddering series of knocks cut the conversation short, as both large, young men turned towards the locked steel door that provided the only way in or out of the sealed-off section of the palace hangar. The high-ceilinged, eerily-lit, slightly pungent chamber was surrounded on all sides by towering metal walls, providing maximum privacy.

"Tell them I'm performing maintenance and that the specifications of this ship are classified," Kunzite said, continuing to search through the wires.

Nephrite put the rod up on his left shoulder and ran over to the door, a thick steel plate of minimal features beyond the bolt lock and knob. The brunette general pulled the bolt out and turned the knob, cracking the door open and peering through. He opened his mouth, but whatever he had to say never got out.

The heavy door was quickly whipped open, admitting Prince Endymion, Zoisite, and Jadeite. Kunzite looked up, scrambling to his feet in a hurry before realizing who was intruding on his work. Nephrite shut the door behind the trio.

"O-oh," Kunzite said, straightening his posture out a bit as the Prince rapidly approached. "Your Highness."

"We need to talk," Endymion said, looking rather distressed.

"Right," Kunzite said. "I suppose it's probably obvious, but the mission was a failure. We aborted before—"

"We have bigger problems right now," Endymion said breathlessly.

Kunzite was taken aback slightly, raising an eyebrow and dropping the large screwdriver to the concrete floor at his side. "I doubt that."

"No no, Kunzite, really, we've got a real problem here," Endymion countered. "He knows! Kasios, he's...he knows."

The impact of that statement was enough to get Kunzite's mouth to drop a couple of finger lengths, provoking an instinctive reflexive reaction of panic. Quickly, however, the absurdity of the statement motivated the opposite reaction.

"N-not us!" Zoisite chimed in quickly. "He doesn't know about us!"

Endymion squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head back and forth. "R-right, sorry, yes, not us."

"I was wondering why you weren't in restraints right now," Nephrite said dryly, rejoining the conversation.

"I meant about Cronus, he knows about Cronus," Endymion clarified. "He...he's figured it out."

"Ah," Kunzite said, putting his open palm out towards the Prince. "We should probably go somewhere a little more secure before we continue."

"

"He knows, and he's got a great bead on the situation," Endymion said darkly, hunched over, elbows resting on his knees and hands steepled from his seat at the foot of the bed. "I mean, he's got a dead read on the situation. He thinks Cronus is...thinks he's been operating for over a decade, thinks he's using Soranus and Galen to move materials, I mean, everything he told me, he's right on point."

Kunzite's tiny private chambers were just barely big enough to hold five people, the quintet of palace dwellers enough to make it feel rather cramped and inadequate. Kunzite, Endymion, and Zoisite sat along the outside edges of the bed, Jadeite took the desk chair, and Nephrite leaned against the rightmost wall.

"He knows it," Kunzite said. "But he can't prove it. I have that right?"

Endymion scoffed. "No, he can't prove it right now, but...that just means he's not going to rest until he can. Trust me, my father...he's not going to quit. Not for anything. Short of Terra descending from the holy plane and telling him that Cronus is innocent and that he should be looking elsewhere, he's going to spend the rest of his life trying to prove it."

"He has nothing to go on," Nephrite mumbled. "And what can he even do without the agency backing him up? You said it yourself, nobody else on the council agrees with him, there's no official investigation, he has no resources to fall back on. He's one man."

"That all just makes him _more_ convinced that he's right," Endymion groaned. "And, actually, he does have one resource." He pointed both his thumbs at his chest. "Me."

Kunzite tilted his head slightly, looking over at the Prince. "You? You're helping him?"

"I...I didn't know how to say no without sounding suspicious," Endymion said lamely. "You know, he's got a real way of being forceful when he wants something. Believe me, I didn't want it." He rummaged around in the right pocket of his pants. "But I didn't see a choice." He removed a glass cube with a green marble rattling around inside. "He wants me to...plant this on him so he can track his movements. I bought some time, but in a cycle, he'll start pressing me if I haven't done it yet."

Kunzite squinted down at the marble. "He actually wants to involve you like that?"

Endymion shrugged. "I tried to tell him it would make me uncomfortable, but he wouldn't back off, and...I mean, the agency probably gave specific orders to drop it. I'm all he has."

Kunzite slowly nodded, still staring at the green orb inside the glass case. "Well, at least this means he doesn't suspect you."

"For the moment," Endymion replied. "For all I know, he's starting to wonder. That's why I came down to the hangar, he might have my communicator tapped." He looked around at his four generals scattered about the room. "W-we should all be mindful of that possibility for awhile, everyone. No discussions about any of this on communicators."

"What does Cronus know?" Nephrite wondered.

"Oh, he knows! They brought him in for questioning! Had him on _The Savery_ , asked him for an explanation for Viluy, an alibi, so...so he knows." Endymion hung his head low.

"He knows that the agency had some questions, he answered them, and they were happy with his answers," Kunzite countered. "He doesn't know that Kasios still suspects him, Kasios certainly wouldn't give that away."

"Cronus isn't the kind of person who's going to leave anything to chance if he can help it!" Endymion insisted. "No, this...this is bad. Bad on both ends."

Jadeite gave an incredulous look over at his charge. "What are you worried about? It's not as if Cronus can have Kasios killed."

Endymion winced at the mere suggestion. "I...I don't know. Nothing can be ruled out. Cronus's wealth, influence, power...nothing is beyond his reach. And if he feels like Kasios is a real threat to expose him…" He shook his head. "I don't want things to get to that point."

"Okay, okay," Jadeite said slowly. "So, what if he _did_ catch him?"

Endymion's head snapped up, and he twisted his body to the right to face Jadeite. "Is that a real question?"

"I-I'm just saying," Jadeite continued. "You said that Cronus was going to try to knock you off as soon as he felt like he could afford to, so...he can't do that if he gets caught, right? What if we let the High King take care of the problem for us?"

Endymion scowled over at his blond general. "Jadeite. If Kasios catches Cronus, he catches _us_! One way or another, Cronus setting foot inside an agency holding cell leads to us following close behind, we can _not_ let Kasios find any real evidence!"

Jadeite gritted his teeth. "Alright, alright."

Endymion pressed his fingertips into his right temple as hard as he could. "The only solution, our only way out, we have to...we have to get Cronus out of the picture. After he's gone, we might have some cleaning up to do to make sure we don't get exposed in the investigation, but we have to get rid of him first." He looked back over to Kunzite. "So, our timetable is getting condensed. W-what happened today, anyway?"

Kunzite rattled out a sigh. "He knew we were coming. He actually called me, right before we were about to start the mission. We were still millions of dolichos away from Deimos." He gestured over to his right. "That's why I was...pulling my ship apart. He might have bugged it again, I don't see how else he could have my movements down that precisely."

"Get yourself scanned as well. Could be you he's tracking, not your ship," Zoisite suggested.

"So, speaking of people who know things now, Cronus now knows that we intend on killing him," Endymion said darkly. "Although, I'm sure he suspected it already."

"He's not going to let any of us anywhere near him," Nephrite grumbled. "He's got infinite resources, practically."

"Leaving us just...sitting here, waiting for the day when Cronus decides he's had enough of me," Endymion finished, tilting his head back. "So we just wait for a multi-billionaire to decide he has enough money that he can kill someone who is actively trying to kill him."

"We'll look into something less direct," Kunzite reasoned. "He still has to eat, it's not as if he's spending all of his time locked in a safe room."

The Crown Prince sandwiched his hands together, pressing his thumbs into the bridge of his nose. "Serenity can't know. No matter what. If she thinks that my life is in danger, she'll blow the roof off the entire thing. That's for starters."

"Perhaps the best move would be to inform Cronus of the situation," Zoisite suggested. "Make sure that he knows exactly what's going on. Surely, he won't bother doing anything as long as he knows the agency trusts him completely, regardless of what Kasios might believe."

Endymion sighed, then nodded.

"

Endymion slowly tilted his head back, closing his eyes and rolling his shoulders around. Kunzite dumped the final tray of refined imperium into one of the collection bins, getting all four of the containers filled to the brim.

The room was deathly silent, all the vats and ovens shut down, just two young men now staring up at the door up on the catwalk. It was pickup day, and due to the secrecy of this work, surely one of Cronus's remaining lieutenants would be making the pickup. There had already been a couple of these since Viluy's death, each of them as awkward and tense as you might expect, but had yet to rise above that.

"Is today the day?" Endymion said under his breath, putting his hands on his hips as he stared up at the door.

"Don't think about that," Kunzite said. "Just focus on making sure we deliver a clear message for her to hand off."

Endymion, however, couldn't stop thinking about it. His fear always escalated on pickup days, feeling like it would be a perfect time for Cronus to end their partnership, with no batches in progress and with one of his lieutenants in the area anyway. Suddenly overcome by a wave of emotion, he turned away and took a few steps across the lab, going behind the large silver vat and pulling out his communicator.

Quickly, fingers trembling, he tapped several buttons along the outer edge, bringing up the hologram right above the center of it. As quickly as he could, he brought up the frequency for Princess Serenity's communicator and slapped his fingers on the center button. Taking the small earpiece out of the side, he gave it a little yank to dislodge it, and then stuck it in his ear.

"C'mon, c'mon," he muttered, impatiently tapping his foot on the concrete floor. After several moments, however, all he received was a series of dull tones, indicating that he was being sent to a recording. "Shit."

"Leave a message for the recipient and they will get back to you as soon as possible."

"Uh, Serenity, sweetie, it's me," Endymion said, stumbling a bit through his words. "Um, I just...I just wanted to talk to you real quick, but, uh...well, I just wanted you to know that...well, I love you."

With that, he ended the call and pocketed the communicator, pulling out the earpiece and tossing it in after it. He came back around the vat, looking up just in time to see the door open.

Ptilol stepped through, immediately casting a disdainful look down at the two Terrans down below. Endymion frantically looked her over, trying to find some indication of whether or not she intended on doing anything more than taking the imperium.

Quickly, she marched along the catwalk, crossing it as fast as she could without moving frantically. Endymion cleared his throat as she began to spin down the spiral staircase.

"We need to discuss something," Endymion said, standing up straight and doing his best to project confidence. She seemed to completely ignore him, getting down to the floor and going over to the collection bins. "It's very important that what I'm about to say reaches Cronus."

Ptilol was wearing a clear scowl, obviously not interested in engaging in conversation with the Prince.

"I know the agency questioned him about Viluy's death," he continued, plowing on despite her overtly ignoring him. "And I'm sure that he's concerned. So I wanted to get us both on the same page."

Ptilol began tapping buttons on the lip of the first container, priming it so he could check the weight.

"The agency doesn't suspect Cronus in the slightest. There's no investigation, he's not a person of interest, they're not even looking in his direction." Endymion slowly came over towards Ptilol as she moved to the next container. "That being said, my father is a different story. However, he has no evidence at all. No proof. Nothing he can take to the agency to persuade them to see things his way. Right now, his only option is to conduct a personal, private, secret investigation, with practically no resources. He's not going to be a problem for us."

Kunzite loomed behind Endymion's shoulder, prepared for the situation to go south fast.

"We all want the same thing here. None of us want my father to find out about our operation. And I'm the only person he feels comfortable confiding in about any of this. I will make sure he discovers nothing. I'm the only asset he can use in his investigation."

Ptilol, satisfied with her check of the imperium weight, activated the large cargo elevator that the containers were stationed on. Slowly, the platform rose up, Ptilol jumping off it back onto the floor.

"Um, there's just one thing, though," Endymion said, quickly following Ptilol as she purposefully moved back towards the spiral staircase. "He...he wants to spy on Cronus's movements. See if he'll go somewhere or meet with someone that he can use to get the agency to officially investigate."

Ptilol, a few steps short of the stairs, halted midstep, then turned to look at the Crown Prince, for the first time acknowledging that she was listening.

"H-he gave me this," Endymion continued, reaching towards his right pants pocket. Ptilol made a move towards her hip, prompting the Prince to slow down. With deliberate, careful movements, Endymion exposed a glass box with a green marble in it. "It's coated with a radioactive material that he can track, he wanted me to plant it on Cronus. I-if I don't do it, he'll probably try something else." He held the box out towards Ptilol, who jumped back a bit away from it. "At least this way, we can control what he sees. But this needs to be delivered to Cronus."

Ptilol simply stared down at the encased marble, giving away nothing other than a general distaste with her expression. Endymion, not sure what else to do, just kept his arm extended towards her.

"P-please," Endymion said. "My father might abandon his suspicions if he gets to track Cronus for awhile and doesn't find anything incriminating. This is the best chance we have."

With a quick-twitch movement, Ptilol grabbed the cube, then marched over towards the nearest counter, just a dozen paces to her left. She slapped the glass down on the corner of the table, then turned back around to resume her previous directive of ascending the stairs. Endymion, mildly confused, watched with wide eyes.

"So, we'll just leave it there?" Endymion asked, slowly twisting his neck around to follow Ptilol along the catwalk. "You've got it under control? You'll pass all that along?"

Ptilol didn't answer, instead going over to where the giant imperium bins had been lifted to, busying herself with pushing them into the loader built into the wall for transport out to the hangar.

"

Cronus held the glass cube in the fingers of his right hand, thumb on one of the points, and index finger on the opposite one.

"He must be rather convinced of my guilt to actually conscript his son into helping him," Cronus said thoughtfully, tilting the glass around and prompting the marble to roll about within.

"The Prince was insistent that High King Kasios has no evidence," Ptilol insisted.

"Which will make him very eager to find some," Cronus countered. He turned to his right, looking over towards Eudial, who was seated against the leftmost wall of the office. "How confident are you in your knowledge of the Galactic Imperium Agency's activities?"

Eudial straightened her back up. "I feel very confident that the agency does not consider you a suspect or person of interest. High King Kasios is on an island here. With all the sources and leaks we have inside the agency, I don't believe it's possible they could be running an investigation without me hearing about it."

Cronus pushed a breath out of his nose, setting the cube down on the corner of his desk surface. "For over a decade, we operated without being suspected by anyone. One person is one too many. Particularly this person."

"I'm not really seeing what he'll be able to do," Eudial continued. "He has one resource to lean on, and that resource happens to be working for us. We'll just misdirect him for a little while and he'll have to give up."

Cronus bowed his head in thought. "The war won't be settled for some time. Half a year at best, possibly a year. We need to keep running until then. After that, whatever we have to do to survive, we do, but until then, we have to remain operational. We'll trust Endymion to throw Kasios off our scent for now. But if he gets close, we do what we have to do. Nothing can stop us from bringing a quick end to this war. Nothing."

Tellu slowly tilted her head to the right. "You said that killing a Prince would be overly difficult and impossible to get away with, now you mean to kill the High King?"

"Circumstances have changed, we're much closer to our goal now. And no amount of risk is too much if the alternative is being exposed to the agency. But, hopefully, it never comes to that." He waved his right hand over towards the door to his office, back out into the main hall of the Neptune branch of Galen Laboratories. "Tellu, you have your instructions. It's imperative that this mission is a success."

The tall, slim woman rose to her feet and gave a quick bow towards her boss. "The 17th Legion will be no more by the end of tomorrow." With that bold proclamation, she turned to her left and marched towards the door.

"And I'll be sure that Kasios has nothing to work with," Cronus said, tapping his finger on the glass cube.

"Um...sir," Ptilol began as Tellu departed, subconsciously pressing her knees together and clenching her hands in her lap. "I, uh...I've been wanting to have a little discussion about something. I know it's an awkward topic, I've been trying to put it off, but...I just want to go ahead and deal with it now."

Cronus remained stoic, staring Ptilol down with an intimidating glare that was almost enough to get her to abandon her plan. But she resolutely plowed on.

"Um...Cyprine," Ptilol said quietly, looking over at Eudial out of the corner of her eyes. Part of her wished the redheaded psychic wasn't here and that this was a private conversation, but she supposed that this involved her as well, potentially. "I just, I want to talk about what happened with Cyprine."

She swallowed the building lump in her throat as Cronus just waited for Ptilol to elaborate. This felt like a mistake, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to just stay silent on this forever, and now was just as good a time as any other.

"I know she made a mistake. And I know it was costly, and even now we're paying for it. But I just have to question the decision to...I mean, she had been with you for over ten years. Did it really have to come to that?" Ptilol shifted in her seat slightly. "I just have to understand, why did things have to go that far?"

Slowly, Cronus raised both his hands up in front of him, gesturing towards the open space in the desk right before him. He shook his hands a couple times, doing nothing to clarify what he was trying to indicate.

"Well?" he asked.

"I...I, uh…"

"I'm just assuming that you've invented or come across some sort of time machine that will allow us to travel back before I made my decision with Cyprine, and stop me? Maybe some sort of potion or spell that can raise the dead?" He shrugged. "Without any of that, then what's the point of bringing any of this up? Surely you wouldn't bother asking me if I regret my actions, when you have no way of undoing them?"

"U-um—"

"Which would make this a waste of time for all of us. So, what's your solution?" Cronus waited for an answer to his doubtlessly-rhetorical question.

"S-she was put in a difficult situation and things happened she couldn't have possibly seen coming," Ptilol continued. "I'm just not sure why...I...I just want to know, sir. If you _could_ go back, and make that decision again, what would you do?"

"Really?" Cronus asked judgmentally. "A hypothetical? That's what you feel so urgently about asking?"

"I-I just feel like we could use her right now, she could be valuable, and...I, I don't know, sir." She bit her cheek. "I guess what I want...what I'm trying to say is—"

"Ptilol," Cronus said. "I know what you want. I know exactly what you want. And I don't have time for it." He clenched his mouth. "You want me to admit that I made a mistake. That I was wrong. That I shouldn't have killed Cyprine, that I'm regretting it now. You want me to say all that, because it'll make you feel better, for me to admit that I wish I hadn't done it. Nevermind the fact that even if I did admit any of that, it would do _nothing_ to bring her back." He shook his head in disappointment. "You should be better than this, Ptilol."

Ptilol tensed up more than she was already tensed, sensing his quiet vitriol.

"You're not a child anymore, you're supposed to be above this. Cyprine made a critical error in judgement. An error that cost Viluy her life, and forced us to be dependent on someone unreliable. An error that prevents us from severing our ties with someone who is actively attempting to kill us, and brought suspicion on us. We're so close to achieving the goal we've worked towards for the last decade, and she has jeopardized it all with sloppiness. I can not tolerate sloppiness, not now, when so much hangs in the balance. I made my decision, Ptilol. And if you disagree with it, if you would have made another one, then you are free to keep all that to yourself. Because I don't care. The only thing that matters now, the only thing that should be on anyone's mind, is bringing the civil war on Saturn to an end. Is that going to be a problem for you?"

"Ahh…" Ptilol exhaled, clearly getting the picture that she wasn't going to get anything else out of this. Slowly, she got to her feet. "No, sir. No problem."

"Eudial, you're dismissed as well," Cronus added, not taking his eyes off Ptilol. "Everything goes forward as normal."

As the redheaded lieutenant obeyed his dismissal, Cronus opened the drawer on the right side of his desk, drawing out the concealed compartment. Quickly, he grabbed the glass cube off the desk surface and set it into the drawer. Just as fast as he had opened it, he slammed it shut.

The next secunda was occupied by the two young women departing the office, both of them intimidated into silence by Cronus's harsh monologue. They were both quite eager to leave his presence, in fact.

As soon as he was alone, Cronus gave an annoyed grunt. Slowly, he pulled the drawer back open, eyes now studying the assorted contents instead of dismissing them. He focused in on one object on the left side of the compartment, which he had just barely noted in the back of his head the first time. A golden locket, about the side of his thumbpad, with a thin golden chain looped through it. He picked it up by the chain, quickly lifting it enough so the locket was dangling in front of his face. With a reflexive glance to either side of him, he pressed his right hand's thumb into the face of the locket, which got the oval-shaped object to pop open.

A tiny, circular photograph was inside the piece of jewelry. A simple picture of a face. Round and soft with short black hair and big purple eyes, it was clearly the face of a very young child. He sighed, gently tapping the photo with his finger.

"

Kunzite grumbled under his breath as he, once again, found the door into the luxury apartment unlocked. He tossed it open, quickly stepping inside and guiding the massive luggage container onto the front foyer before closing and locking it.

"Princess Venus, we—" Kunzite began, turning to sweep across the apartment in front of him. This one was colored with slightly more pastel tones, just a little more attention-grabbing and hard on the eyes. The layout was roughly similar, however, enough to where Kunzite didn't bother to actually take note of any of the details. Once again, the blonde Princess was not readily visible. He rolled his eyes, then made to enter the hallway to his right.

"Out here!"

He froze mid-step, head rotating to the glass balcony door on the opposite side of the main lounging room. It was cracked open, and now that he was specifically looking for it, he was able to make out the Princess laying back on a reclining lounge chair.

Quickly, he marched across the garish orange carpet, waving his right arm over at the luggage container to deactivate it and get it to settle into the floor. In short order, he was pulling the glass door to the side, opening out onto a modest-sized balcony, equipped with a white stone railing around the edges, a pair of cushioned lounge chairs, a grey stone round table between them, and potted plants in the corners. She was laying back on the right one, her orange high heels off and laying on the floor right next to the chair.

"I have it," Kunzite said quietly, scanning the outdoor terrace for anyone else. "Get inside."

"Is it going to run away if I don't get it right now?" she asked, not turning around to look at the white-haired Earth general, satisfying herself with simply looking out towards the sunset.

"The sooner we finish this transaction, the sooner we can go our separate ways and get back to work," Kunzite said.

"That doesn't sound like a very good incentive to me," Venus countered. "It's actually the opposite of a good incentive."

Kunzite sighed. "Your Highness—"

"What difference would it make, ultimately?" Venus asked. "Would something awful happen if you spent ten or fifteen secundas extra here?"

"I'm expected back at the palace, and I'm very busy," Kunzite insisted. "If you don't care to check the product, just tell me where the money is."

"Expected back by your Prince?" Venus asked, slowly twisting her head back around to look up at the increasingly-frustrated general.

"Perhaps," Kunzite answered tersely.

"Does he have you on a curfew?" Venus asked teasingly. "Does he spank you if you get home late?"

Kunzite grumbled.

"Just sit down for a little while. I won't bite," Venus said. "Maybe it'll do you some good. Besides, we're partners, aren't we? Maybe we should take some time to discuss how things are going, make sure we're on the same page."

Kunzite looked around, his natural inclinations forcing him to assume this was some sort of trap. He went over to the edge of the balcony, leaning over the ledge and checking underneath the platform the best he could.

"What are you afraid of?" Venus chided. "Do you have any idea how much money I'm making off our little arrangement? I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Kunzite, considering her statement for a moment, shrugged, and then took a couple of quick steps over to the vacated chair. He sat down in it heavily, immediately looking off towards the setting sun. "What are we looking at?"

"Whatever you want to look at," Venus said. "Don't tell me you don't know how to relax."

Kunzite crossed his right leg over his left, looking over to his right at Princess Venus. Figuring his best move was to give her what she wanted as quickly as possible. "So, how's the distribution?"

"Great," Venus answered. "The planet's been starving for some black market competition for awhile now. I don't think I'd be moving it any faster if I was giving it away for free. In fact, can we boost the product amount to seven hundred?"

"I think I can manage that," Kunzite replied quickly. "Any problems legally?"

"Nothing big. Two dealer arrests so far, just...mistakes that should never have been made."

Kunzite startled into an upright position, eyes widening and face wrinkling. "Arrests?! You said—"

"Yes, yes, they're not...they're not getting picked up on the side of the street or anything like that, it's more...they trust the wrong people, it's not something that's going to happen over and over." Venus absentmindedly waved her left hand towards the general.

"If they get arrested on Venus, they get ten years, minimum!" Kunzite said. "How—"

"My people are solid, as long as their families are taken care of," Venus insisted, motioning for Kunzite to settle back down. "They knew the risks when they signed on, and they're willing to keep quiet. My dealers are in this for more than just money."

Kunzite's suspicions remained raised as he eyed Venus. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that they're in this for ideology as well. They support my cause, and are willing to put themselves at risk in order to assist in accomplishing it." Venus turned back out towards the sunset.

"What cause might that be?" Kunzite asked.

She smirked. "Well, I suppose it would be rude to not share. I'm planning a coup."

"Hm," Kunzite muttered. "That would not have been my first guess."

"Don't worry, it's a moral coup," Venus assured him. "A non-violent one, too. It will be."

"Moral, non-violent coup," Kunzite mused. "Good luck with that."

"I'm serious!" Venus said, a hint of a pouty whine in her voice. "Y-you must see it, you're aware of galactic news and politics, my parents are destroying the Kingdom! These fascist policies, not only are they unpopular and immoral, they're...it's expensive. They're driving the planet into bankruptcy, and...the fact that I've managed to recruit tens of thousands of civilians into a...an underground rebellion, that should tell you all you need to know about their popularity!"

Kunzite gave a reluctant little shrug. "I suppose."

"A-and, they hate me! They're never going to let me have the throne, they'll die with their fingers clenched around the crown to keep it from me. This is the only way! By the time they die, the planet will be in ruins."

"So, we're funding a coup now," Kunzite mused to himself. "Yet another thing to bury a few dolichos underground when we're done."

"By the time they find out about _that_ , it'll already be too late," Venus comforted him. "So, now you know. I need money to fund my non-violent takeover." She turned towards him again and pointed a finger at him. "A moral one! So, feel better."

"I wasn't feeling bad, really," Kunzite muttered.

"Okay, your turn," she prompted.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kunzite said gruffly. "I didn't agree to anything."

"Oh come on!" she whined. "I actually want to know, how...I just can't figure it out, it's the one thing I can't solve. How the hell did Prince Endymion, of all people, wind up in a line of work like this? It doesn't make sense at all. Is he...is he funding a coup of his own?"

Kunzite slowly craned his body back into a semi-reclining position, lips sealed.

"I'll admit, the High King doesn't seem like he's ready to hand the throne over anytime soon. I just didn't see Endymion as someone who particularly _wanted_ it right now." She shrugged. "Learn something new every day."

"It's not a coup," Kunzite finally relented.

"Earth Kingdom hard up for money, then?" Venus suggested. "I could believe it. I know from personal experience, a couple of bad choices by the head royal, and the treasury gets empty real fast."

"I don't know," Kunzite finally admitted. "It...it wasn't that, either. I just don't know."

"You don't know?" Venus said with some degree of incredulity. "You can't come up with a better lie than that?"

"It's not a lie. I'm following the orders of my charge. That's my job. So, if you want to know the reason why I'm doing this, then it's because the Prince ordered me to. As for why the Prince is doing this...I couldn't tell you."

"Prince Endymion is dabbling in one of the most illegal things in all the galaxy for no particular reason?" Venus asked rhetorically. "He just...woke up one morning and decided, this is just what I should do, this is what the son of a King should occupy his time with?"

"I'm still trying to figure it out myself, honestly," Kunzite said thoughtfully. "He...he says he's doing it to protect his wife. Protect Serenity. Um, doing it for the Moon."

"Oh," Venus replied, eyes narrowing. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Kunzite let out a sigh. "Because I don't believe it." He shook his head. "I—"

All at once, he caught himself. He couldn't believe he had opened up, even that tiny amount, to someone outside his direct circle of trust. Something about her mannerisms had managed to get through to him. In one sudden movement, he got to his feet.

"I actually do have to go now," he said quickly. "I'll bring seven hundred libras next time."

"Money's in the cabinet underneath the basin," Venus said quickly, turning to watch Kunzite quickly go back inside and slide the glass panel closed behind him. "See you!"

As Kunzite abruptly made his way back across the luxury apartment room, he hurriedly rubbed his face up and down with his right hand, forehead heavily wrinkled, as he tried to burn off his immense frustration with himself.


	42. Vent

Chapter 42: Vent

A/N: Have now officially hit 9,000 views on this story in total. Thank you so much to all my readers. And sorry for the delay in posting this, work has been slamming me lately.

"

"Alright. Here's what it's like," Zoisite said slowly, kneeling down on the floor of Prince Endymion's bedroom, right in the middle of the carpet, a couple of stuffed animals and glass jars filled with marshmallows in front of him and behind him. Princess Serenity was kneeling on the floor on the opposite side of the arrangement, watching carefully.

Zoisite picked up a stuffed rabbit that was holding a small orange carrot. "So, this is Augustus. Augustus a full-time black market imperium dealer." He then reached to his left and grabbed a jar of marshmallows. "And this is the money that he makes from dealing imperium." He dumped the contents of the jar out onto the floor in front of his knees. "So, Augustus starts doing what everyone does with money." He started removing small handfuls of marshmallows from the mound that he had created and scooping them off to the side. "He buys a house, a speeder, food, goes out at night to gamble and party. There's just one problem. Augustus doesn't have any other job. His work on the black market is, obviously, off-the-record."

With that, he set the rabbit down next to the pile of marshmallows and reached to his right to grab a stuffed bear. "So, in comes Felix. Felix works for the Department of Treasury, and he's noticed that Augustus is spending a lot of money that he shouldn't have, and he isn't paying any taxes." He slammed the bear down on top of the rabbit. "So, Felix investigates Augustus, finds out that he's making his money illegally, and Augustus goes to prison for felony tax evasion." Zoisite picked up the rabbit and placed it behind him, then putting the bear on top of the marshmallows. "Meanwhile, Felix takes every last cred to pad the pockets of the treasury."

Serenity slowly pointed her right index finger up towards her face. "But _we're_ the treasury, the treasury works for us."

"Well, they work for the High King," Zoisite corrected. "And either way, we can't just tell the treasury to completely ignore obvious Class B felony tax fraud."

She then pointed over towards Zoisite. "W-what about the carrot?"

"What?" Zoisite reached back behind him and picked up the stuffed bunny, bringing it back in front of him to look at. "O-oh, that...nothing, the carrot isn't anything. Uh, anyway." He put the rabbit back down next to the marshmallows, grabbing the bear and putting it over to the side. Quickly, he scooped the sugary treats up in his right hand and began dumping them back into the glass jar. "Now, what can Augustus do to prevent this?"

Serenity watched in silence as Zoisite quickly refilled the jar, closed fist propped underneath her chin.

"Well, first, he doesn't spend the money he makes on the black market, he keeps it hidden." He screwed a tin lid on top of the jar. "Next, he obtains a significant sum of money that he _can_ explain having through legal means. Maybe he gets a real, above-board job, maybe a friend or family member extends him a loan, maybe he fakes a large gambling win." He took a smaller glass jar of white marshmallows from behind him, unscrewing the lid and dumping out a portion of the jar on the left side of the rabbit doll. "The point is, he can justify having it, and Felix suspects nothing." He tapped the top of the teddy bear.

"Next, he uses this money to purchase a business. In his case, probably something fairly modest. A speeder wash or reupholstery, an arcade, a convenience store, something like that." He quickly swept most of the pile of marshmallows to the side, and replaced them with a much larger jar. This one was partially filled with marshmallows already and was labeled along the front 'BUSINESS' with a taped piece of paper. "Now, he has a legitimate business that generates taxable, legal income, and people like Felix won't look twice at him." He scooped up the remaining remnants of Augustus's legally obtained marshmallows up in his left hand, used his right to unscrew the top off the business jar, and dumped them in. "Augustus has to invest more money into the business in order to keep it running, and if some of that money happens to be his illicitly-obtained black market imperium money, it'll be pretty hard to notice as long as he's careful. Plus, he can falsify a few receipts here and there, creating imaginary sales that are paid for out of of his dirty money." He re-opened the initial jar, grabbing a handful out and placing them into the large container.

"And there you have it. Augustus gradually filters his dirty money through his clean business's cash flow, and it all comes out above suspicion, taxable, and most importantly, spendable." He concluded his demonstration by pouring a small portion of the business marshmallows on the carpet next to the stuffed bunny. "Felix has no reason to suspect anything, Augustus gets to spend his money as he likes, nobody goes to prison."

"Did the carrot represent anything this time?"

Zoisite looked over to his right, where Jadeite was seated on a stool.

"N-no!" Zoisite snapped. "No, the carrot means nothing, I...I just can't…" he grabbed the bunny and began trying to pull the orange piece of fabric out of his hand, but it wouldn't move. "I can't take it away, it's sewn in."

"Who would have thought spending money was so complicated," Serenity muttered under her breath.

"Alright, Jadeite, you got it?" Zoisite asked, staring down his colleague. "Really?"

"Yes, yes, I got it, it's...it's good, we're good," he muttered.

"Because if Nephrite was able to get this, you really have no excuse. I can't make it any simpler than this," Zoisite said sternly.

Jadeite scoffed. "What's the difference? We're all just going to be doing what you tell us to do."

"I'd prefer to avoid that," Zoisite responded tersely. "A little bit of agency on your part would go a long way in making this work."

The main door firing open snipped the budding argument before it could blossom, a slumped-shouldered Prince Endymion entering. Jadeite and Zoisite sprung to their feet, squaring their postures up towards their charge.

"Your Highness," Zoisite said. "I was just going over some...uh, remedial money laundering instructions."

"Or, maybe, he was compensating for previous instructions that were unclear and poorly dictated," Jadeite retorted.

"Uh…" Endymion slowly took a glance around at the odd collection of stuffed animals and jars of marshmallows. "If you say so."

"Oh, uh...sorry about the mess, Your Highness," Zoisite said, bending down to start scooping the arrangement of loose marshmallows up into a singular pile. Serenity picked up both of the stuffed animals, holding one in each hand, focus on her husband.

"Are you alright?" she asked, noting his slouched posture and indifferent demeanor.

"Oh...long day. Tired," he replied lazily, turning to lumber off towards his bed.

"We'll be out of here shortly," Zoisite said, making quick work of the confectionary pile and collecting his assorted jars.

Endymion sighed. "It's fine. Just a little worn out. Can't believe that working-class people are expected to do this for their entire lives."

Zoisite was tempted to make a comment about the additional stress the Prince was under, given the current status of his relationship with Cronus, but with Serenity present, could not.

"She's picked up three new words today," Serenity said proudly, crossing her arms over her chest as she followed her husband over to the bed. "Should, have, and bear."

"And the shit you miss when you're working," Endymion added. "I feel bad, not being here to watch her grow and do things like that."

"W-well, Endy…" Serenity pushed one of her long pigtails back over her shoulder. "Maybe you should start considering an exit strategy?"

Endymion, with a huff, sat down heavily on the side of the bed, gripping the edge of the mattress on either side of him in his hands. "I'm working on it."

"After all, if we can manage to dig our way out of debt, there's not really any...need for you to keep working for this guy. You said you were committed for a year, but, after that, maybe it'll be time to put this all behind us."

Endymion nodded. "That's what I'm working towards."

"Your Highness," Zoisite said, marching off towards the door, marshmallow jars in tow, after finishing the minor cleanup. Jadeite followed right behind him, leaving the royal couple alone.

"Where is she?" Endymion asked as the door clicked shut behind his two generals.

"Delia's got her," Serenity answered, running around the bed towards the table right by the leftmost pillow. A circular device was emitting a blinking blue light. "Oh, how did I not notice this?"

As Endymion started to remove his vest, Serenity quickly manipulated the communicator with a few button presses, prompting it to replay the recorded message on it.

"Uh, Serenity, sweetie, it's me."

Just as he was about to start unbuttoning his undershirt, Endymion froze, recognizing his voice being played back on Serenity's communicator. Of course, she recognized the same, turning to look over at her husband as his voice came through loud and clear on the recording.

"Um, I just...I just wanted to talk to you real quick, but, uh...well, I just wanted you to know that...well, I love you."

The communicator clicked off, leaving the young couple staring at each other across the large bed.

"

Serenity let loose a contented moan as she settled her nude body against Endymion's under the covers, Endymion wrapping his thin left arm underneath her. "Woo," she huffed. "So much going on lately, I haven't even had a moment to think about stuff like this."

"Mm," Endymion grumbled. "Maybe this is what I've been missing."

"First time since the...you know, Jadeite thing," Serenity mused, almost immediately feeling herself get squeezed against her husband's body by his left arm. "Hey, hey! Ow!"

As soon as he had started squeezing hard into her, he relaxed the pressure, sighing. "Sorry." With a frustrated incoherent mumble, he closed his eyes. "But, please, don't bring that up anymore."

"So, this...this person you're working with, how long has it been now?" she asked, settling in against his side.

"Eight cycles, coming up on nine," he answered.

"Think about how nice it'll be when you put it behind you in three cycles," Serenity suggested, drawing a tiny circle on Endymion's chest repeatedly with her index finger. "Get to see your daughter start to...string sentences together, count to a hundred, maybe do some puzzles, build some block towers. Won't that be nice?"

"Mm."

"So, what was up with that call?" she asked. "What brought that on?"

"Oh...nothing in particular," Endymion answered evasively, lifting her small body up on top of his before she could press the point any further.

"Ohh...ah!" she yelped. Just as Endymion started pressing his lips into her neck, a series of knocks at the door broke Serenity's focus. She turned her head and looked up towards the door, simultaneously reaching up over her head with her slender arm to flip a small switch above the headboard on.

"H-hello?" Serenity called out, Endymion completely unfazed by the interruption and continuing to trail kisses down her neckline and towards her chest.

"Your Highness?" The aged, yet feminine voice emitting from the vented speaker right above the door clearly marked the person on the other side of the door as Delia, royal midwife, kept around even now with Chibiusa approaching her first birthday, to assist in the early growth of the young Princess. "Are you ready for her?"

"O-oh, I...ee!" Serenity squealed. Endymion was not deterred by the budding conversation, and in a sudden movement, rolled Serenity over onto the bed, his arms wrapped around her body. "N-not right now!" she managed to yell out. "E-Endy, hold on, gimme a second!" she whispered, grinning nevertheless as Endymion put her on her stomach and started kissing the back of her neck.

"I'll keep her, then?" Delia asked.

"

Delia, left index finger pressed into the small black button right next to the royal bedroom door and mouth up close to the wall right by the button, raised her eyebrows quizzically at the sounds coming out of the small speaker above the door. Chibiusa was strapped in a harness to her chest, wriggling her arms and legs back and forth, gurgling out assorted noises.

"Y-yes! Maybe a minuta or so more," Serenity answered. "I-I...maybe I'll just come get you when I—ah! Hey! No butt stuff!"

Delia's eyes widened, and she immediately reached her hands up to either side of Chibiusa's head, plugging her ears gently and running off back down the large, opulent hallway as fast as she could with the child attached to her chest.

"

Endymion gently manipulated the joysticks on _The Bastion_ , spinning the starship on its Y-axis as powerful thrusters fought the force of Earth's gravity to keep the vessel hovering high up in the sky.

"It's all here," Kunzite reported from the back of the ship, down on one knee and examining the contents of a large leather sack. "Just like last time."

"Well, that's got to mean something," Endymion said quietly, a dull little smile on his face. "He wants to kill me, he won't let me anywhere near him, but he's not stiffing me."

As he spoke, Endymion glanced over to the right side of the view out the front windshield. Just a few hundred haplouns away, a massive black freighter ship was slowly coming out from behind a cloud. Easily dwarfing Endymion's personal ship many hundreds of times over, the ship was marked with a large horse as a logo on the side of it, signifying that it belonged to Aerotyne Foods. The Crown Prince tapped his finger lightly on the left joystick, getting the ship to rotate towards it.

"Even once Zoisite gets everything running, we're still going to be acquiring money much faster than we can launder it," Kunzite said. "I've reviewed his plans. We're still going to have some work in front of us convincing the investors to agree to accept delayed—"

As Endymion slowly squared the ship up so that the nose was pointing right at the side of the massive freighter, he tuned out Kunzite's words, his deep voice being replaced by a constant ringing. He blinked a few times, forehead starting to sweat as he steadied the ship.

Slowly, he began to tap his fingertips along the touch screen console in front of him. He was barely even looking down at what he was doing, going through the motions without even thinking about them. As if he was in a dream, not in full control of his actions, he unlocked some hidden menu options on his ship and deactivated the jump lock.

He became less and less aware of what was around him as his right hand reached up above him to move a lever forward. The moment he did, a very loud alarm started blaring, rising above even the dull ringing that was filling his ears. The control panel in front of him was flashing several violent red lights up at him, but he ignored both of these blaring warning signs.

With a single push of a lever and button on the right side of the panel, _The Bastion_ would be sent screaming through the atmosphere, right into the side of the massive freighter, doubtlessly blowing a giant hole through the entire thing as well as disintegrating the Prince's own ship into a billion tiny pieces in an instant. Endymion had turned off the safety measure that wouldn't allow for the jump to engage in the event of an obstruction in the ship's path. A couple ounces of pressure, and would all be over practically instantly.

Endymion closed his eyes, right hand closing down on the lever as his left hand went across his body to rest against the jump button. The alarms kept screaming at him, protesting against every single movement he made, and the flashing red lights felt like they were boring through his eyelids. Nevertheless, he slowly brought the thin, silver lever back towards him.

He was snapped from his trance-like state as Kunzite's large hand grabbed his left wrist and ripped it away from the button. He opened his eyes just in time to watch his white-haired guardian yank him out of the pilot seat and spin him over towards the right side of the cockpit, with more than enough force to get him to let go of the silver lever.

Frantically, Kunzite pushed the lever back into a forward position, then pulled back on the one above the seat. The audible and visual alarms deactivated, instantly easing the environment of the cockpit by eliminating the red tinge that filled the entire compartment. As if racing against the clock, he zipped through menu options on the ship's main control panel to reactivate the jump lock, making sure that the ship would only accelerate to maximum speed if the route plotted was obstruction-free.

With the immediate danger sated, Kunzite turned to face his charge, mouth slightly open as he looked him over. Clearly too shocked to say anything, he just slowly let his eyes scan the Prince up and down, as if expecting him to suddenly morph into a demon, with the real Endymion tied up somewhere in a bathroom.

Endymion sighed, reaching up to wipe off his sweat-covered forehead, and somehow put his wan smile back up. "I'm sorry. Not...not fair for me to involve you in this."

"Your Highness?!" Kunzite asked, bewildered.

"I was just thinking...wouldn't be such a bad way to go," Endymion continued, looking back out towards the freighter in the distance, which was now moving purposefully to the east. "Would look like an accident or a malfunction. Nobody would be wondering what happened to us. Be instantaneous, we wouldn't feel a thing. And, hopefully, nobody would ever find out about all the things we've done over the last year."

Kunzite's forehead knitted together as Endymion slowly put his hands behind his back, clasping them together.

"That wouldn't be such a bad thing. You know, I had sex last night?" He turned back around to face his guardian. "I felt it, too. For a few minutes, we loved each other again. All the shit from the last year just...melted away, and we were just husband and wife again. Not a bad final memory to leave. I wouldn't mind going out on that note."

"Endymion, I...I—"

"It's better than just...waiting," Endymion interrupted. "Waiting for Cronus to decide he doesn't need us anymore...waiting for my father to peel back the layers and drill down to the truth...hell, waiting for our billion dollar money laundering scheme to get exposed. Honestly, I don't know which way I'd rather go down anymore." He shrugged. "At least this way, it'd be on my terms. I'd see it coming. Just...seems like it'd be better."

"Uh…" Kunzite stammered, no idea where to even start addressing what his charge was saying. "I, um…"

"But, I mean, not fair to just include you in all of this without even talking to you," he mumbled. "Sorry, I...silly idea. But, really, it'd be nice if it could just all be over with." He moved towards the pilot's seat. "Alright, alright, forget it, let's just...go home."

"Ah," Kunzite interjected, putting his right arm out in front of Endymion and pushing him away from the chair. "H-how about I pilot home?"

Endymion chuckled. "Right, I...sure."

Slowly, Kunzite settled himself down in the frontmost seat, his head still turned all the way around so he could keep both eyes on Endymion as the Crown Prince settled down into the passenger seat. It was several beats before he could even think to turn back around and take control of the ship, his mind far too clouded with what had transpired over the last couple secundas to give anything but the minimal-required attention towards guiding _The Bastion_ back towards the palace.

After turning the ship back down towards the ground, Kunzite looked back over his shoulder at the Prince. "We're going to be fine. We're going to find a way to get to Cronus first. I'm working on it day and night, we're going to find a way."

"That's the spirit," Endymion mumbled, looking about aimlessly. With a clouded, conflicted expression, Kunzite turned back to look as he began to push the ship down through the cloud coverage.

"

Princess Venus barely acknowledged the glass door behind her sliding open, glancing over her shoulder just enough to see Kunzite stepping out onto the saltillo tile balcony before turning back towards the setting sun off in the distance.

The white-haired Earth general gave an exhausted sigh that was giving away a bit more information that he would typically give around someone not in his immediate circle of trust. Slowly, he came around next to the vacated lawn chair that was next to Venus's, and fell down hard into it. The blonde Princess jolted up in her seat a bit at the force with which Kunzite fell down into the seat.

"Tough day?" she asked, sounding almost amused at his visible exhaustion.

"Imperium's next to the couch inside," Kunzite said quietly.

"I don't recall giving you permission to sit down," Venus added wryly. Kunzite didn't even so much as twitch in response to her teasing.

"Since you have a vested interest in our operation continuing, I feel obligated to let you know that things are very unstable right now, and we may be deprived of our ability to provide you with product at any time," Kunzite said wearily, trying to maintain some level of professionalism.

Venus's smile faded a bit. "I'm not sure if I can accept that."

"It's out of our hands," Kunzite countered. "Cronus is looking to end our relationship as soon as he can. Being entirely honest, it's very likely that we'll no longer be working with him some time in the next few cycles, one way or the other."

The Princess quickly shifted into a more serious mood. "And...how many ways are there?"

Kunzite slowly licked his upper lip, tilting his head to the right slightly as he looked off into the distance. "He most likely intends to have me and the Prince killed as soon as he thinks he can."

Venus's forehead ticked up. "Well, I wasn't expecting to hear that."

"A-and, there are other considerations as well. There's no way around it, we're walking on a tightrope right now. I thought you should know."

"Huh," Venus said, leaning her head back on the rest of the chair. "Endymion is still the Crown Prince of Earth, yes? Last I checked, it's not easy to kill someone like that without suffering severe consequences."

"It's a complicated situation," Kunzite answered. "H-his father, the High King, is beginning to suspect Cronus as well, so we have pressure coming from his end."

"Well, you're opening up," the Princess said. "That's good, at least. Could hardly get two words out of you at first in these little meetings."

Kunzite rubbed his forehead. "I suppose we're in this together. Besides, I need to tell _someone_."

"You do?" she asked.

"I...I just, this job...it wasn't supposed to be like this," Kunzite said, now massaging the bridge of his nose. "I met the Prince when he was young, I...I was around him constantly when he was growing up outside of my two years on Venus. Practically been his shadow most of the time. I knew him. Probably only the High King could claim to know him better. Maybe not even that, and...I just, I can't figure out where this came from. How we ended up here. It doesn't make any sense."

Princess Venus kept quiet as Kunzite continued to pour out his frustrations, hand beneath her chin.

"My job was supposed to be setting up meetings, organizing security, training people...I was almost disappointed when I got to know Endymion at first. It seemed so obvious, he was nothing more than a sheltered royal on the straight-and-narrow. I didn't even think he'd have it in him to come up with a...trademark issue or major piece of legislation that he'd use to define his reign. Just...keep everything the way it was under his father, and run out the clock." Kunzite closed his eyes. "I...I don't even know how to process how we got here." He turned towards her. "You know, he actually tried to kill himself yesterday?"

Venus nearly choked on her sip of a light pink drink. "Like, figuratively?"

"No, literally. I stopped him. Barely. And all he could say was that...if he's going to die, it may as well be on his terms, as if he's just resigned himself to it. So now I have to deal with that. I always thought that, whatever this job ended up throwing at me, no matter what challenges came up, I'd be able to handle it. But this, this is beyond anything I ever thought possible." He shook his head. "And I don't know what to do. I'm the one who's always supposed to know what to do, I'm supposed to handle everything, do the hard things so the Prince doesn't have to, and I just feel overwhelmed. I didn't think it could happen."

"Well, it helps to talk about it," Venus said.

"That's what they say," Kunzite said impatiently. "Can't say I feel much better right now."

"It's certainly in my interests for you to stay alive. Anything I can do to help?" Venus asked.

Kunzite exhaled slowly. "I doubt it." Suddenly, he looked up over his left shoulder. "Well, would you happen to have any of those cigars around?"

"I got rid of those," Venus said, face wrinkling up a bit.

"Why'd you do that?" Kunzite asked, almost looking a little disappointed.

"Because they're disgusting," she said ruefully.

"You were probably smoking them wrong," Kunzite countered.

"You actually want one?" she asked with a bit of a chuckle. "You're just full of surprises today."

"I have a craving," Kunzite said, voice just a touch neurotic. "For the first time in eight years. What can I say? Facing death every single day for the last cycle wears on you."

Princess Venus slowly nodded. "I understand."

"And through it all, I'm thinking about that thing you asked me last time," Kunzite continued. "Why did he get involved in this? I still can't figure it out. I-I don't know why he'd put himself in a position like this when he didn't need to." He pushed his fingers through his hair. "I'm not used to not knowing things. Not used to not knowing what to do. For the first time ever, I kind of wish someone else had this job. Feels like it might be too much for me."

"Hm," Venus muttered. "Not that I want you to, but ever think about just running away?"

Kunzite scoffed, though he was unable to keep a smile off his face. "That's funny."

"What's stopping you?" she asked. "I'm really asking. Just...think about it for a bit."

"I can't do that," Kunzite mumbled. "What, I'm just supposed to abandon the Prince of Earth to his fate? Without me, he's doomed."

"They'd never catch you. If you want to disappear, nobody can do anything about it." Venus crossed her arms over her chest.

Kunzite's face wrinkled up. "H-how do you know so much about me all of a sudden?"

"I'm not wrong, am I?" Venus pointed out. "I'm just saying, it has to be better than dying. When you're in an unusual situation, you have to consider unusual solutions to problems."

"Well, I'm not doing that," Kunzite affirmed, heavily rising up to his feet. "And you don't want me to, anyway."

"Leaving?" she asked. "Money is under the wash basin."

"Ten days?" Kunzite asked, surprisingly not feeling particularly anxious and concerned about how much information he was spilling to Princess Venus. And he could not deny that some of the weight that he felt bearing down on his shoulders was lifted, after finally getting to vent.

"Ten days," she agreed. "I'll bring some cigars next time."

"We all have to find ways to rebel from time to time," she commented.

Not wanting to re-engage with her and possible get involved in another extended discussion that would delay him, Kunzite held silent as he walked back inside.

"

Cronus closed his eyes, steadying himself by taking a deep breath. He was alone in one of his many offices, this one situated on the southern side of Neptune, surrounded by nothing but the stereotypical accoutrements of a successful businessman's workstation. Slowly, he opened the drawer built into the front of the desk in front of him, exposing the assorted pens and papers, as well as a black communicator disc. This disc drew his attention, and he scooped it up out of the drawer, and then used his right hand to withdraw the cube-contained green marble out of his jacket pocket. Quickly setting it down in the drawer, he slid the compartment shut. Dragging the outer rim dials around with his thumbs, he eventually got to the settings he desired and plugged his finger down on the center button.

Almost immediately after he set the communicator down on the desk in front of him, a male voice began pouring out of the speakers all around the disc.

"About time."

"Radburn! Sorry I couldn't take your call earlier," Cronus responded, trying to sound unaffected.

"Save the apologies," Radburn snapped back. "You'll need them for later. Given the money I've paid you, you really should be more concerned with making sure I'm satisfied."

"Are you unhappy with the rate I'm charging for munitions and supplies? Would you like to renegotiate?" Cronus asked.

"Not the rates, Titus," Radburn replied. "It's the goods you've provided me. Do you have any idea how many of your rifles get jammed up after firing through a few clips? Most of your rations are wet, barely edible. And don't get me started on those bombs. We may as well be dropping boulders."

"There's a lot of imprecision in weapon manufacturing, Radburn, I'm sure you know that," Cronus answered.

"This is beyond imprecision!" Radburn interrupted. "The Rings were counting heavily on you to deliver on your promises, you know. Surely you've heard, the war has been turning against us in recent cycles."

"Radburn, you contacted me, and you were aware I didn't possess the resources and funds of other weapon dealers," Cronus answered. "If you're unhappy with what I've provided, I can certainly refund you."

"Oh, shut up!" he yelled. "This is beyond money! Do you have any idea how big of a disaster the battle on Rhea was today?! You'll see all about it in the news soon if you don't believe me. Absolute slaughter. Crippling to the war effort. And my superiors are putting this on me. I'm the one who said I trusted you."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Cronus answered, glancing over at the clock on his desk.

"I don't think you are, Titus," Radburn accused. "No, I think this is exactly what you wanted. I'm starting to think that it was always your plan to disrupt our efforts by supplying us with with useless equipment."

"Radburn, I'm a weapons dealer, I take no sides in any war. My only interest is providing quality supplies to encourage repeat business," Cronus insisted, unable to keep the smile off his face, thankful that there was no way for it to be seen.

"A weapons dealer?" He scoffed. "I'm starting to not even believe that. Titus, if that's even your real name, I think you've been working on the side of the royal house of Saturn this whole time! No amount of incompetency can justify the shoddy munitions you've tried to pass off to us. Well, congratulations. You've accomplished exactly what you've set out to do. But rest assured, whatever the final outcome of the war is, there will be repercussions! The moment I clean up the mess you've created for me, I'm going to find you, and—"

Cronus could just barely make out a slight rumble through the audio connection.

"W-what?!" Radburn snapped. "What was that?!"

Another. And another following right after it. Soon, it was clear that a series of explosions were being fired off wherever Radburn was, each one louder and more cacophonous than the last. Cronus could make out assorted yelling and screaming from various voices, and suddenly, the connection was abruptly cut off.

Smiling and satisfied, Cronus unscrewed the outer casing on the communicator, exposing the circuitry and wiring within, and began to disassemble it, tearing the wires up.

"

With a labored sigh, Kunzite pushed the beaded curtain to the sides with both hands, spreading the strands of colored ropes out so he could step out onto the small balcony, this one functionally the same as all the previous ones, yet with it's own style and taste. Sure enough, Princess Venus was waiting, laying back on a reclined cushioned seat, turned away from the curtain and out towards the setting sun.

Again, Kunzite didn't even wait to be prompted. His weariness and exhaustion was worn on his face even more than it had been the last time. With a dull thud, he went over to the second chair, right by Venus's, and fell down into it. He gave a very soft little grunt, which seemed to be his version of a greeting.

Wordlessly, Venus held her left hand up in the air, holding a thick brown cigar wrapped in a plastic covering. Kunzite glanced over, and despite himself, he smiled. He reached over and took it, rolling it around between his fingers.

After a couple of silent moments, the two of them just staring off towards the setting sun, the Princess casually extended her left hand out towards the Earth general, resting her elbow on the armrest, her fingers just above the ground.

She left the appendage dangling there, wriggling her fingers around a couple times.

Eventually, Kunzite's right hand responded to the prompt, coming down towards hers. His long, thick fingers wrapped around her slender ones gently, clasping around them, as both young adults continued to silently contemplate the horizon.


	43. The Most You've Lost On A Toss

Chapter 43: The Most You've Lost On A Toss

The tip of the unwrapped cigar landed on Kunzite's chest after being neatly sliced off by the sharp clipper. Quickly flicking it away onto the floor, Kunzite placed the other end of the cigar between his teeth, reaching over towards the bedside table.

"Hey," Venus protested, picking her head up from the other side of the bed and looking over at the discarded fleck of refuse from the cigar. "I've got a deposit I need to get back on this room, you know."

"I'm sure you can afford it," Kunzite countered, raising a lighter up in front of the cigar tip and igniting it. "I'm making you a fortune."

"A fortune that I'd rather spend on more important things," Venus said.

Their clothes were piled up haphazardly on the floor at the foot of the bed, the room dimmed with only the natural light sneaking through the curtained windows to illuminate things.

"You can't light that thing up inside, I'll lose the deposit for sure," Venus argued as Kunzite reached over to the bedside table.

"I will pay for the deposit, now stop ruining the mood," Kunzite said stiffly, fumbling around until his fingers closed around a thin black lighter.

"Feel better?" she asked as he ignited the tip of the lighter and placed it up against the thicker end of the cigar.

"Mm," Kunzite murmured. "Not that this has done anything to fix my problems."

"Well, it's fixed at least one of them," she insisted. "Give me some kind of credit."

Kunzite began to puff smoke out of the cigar. "There's been no progress with Cronus," he said quietly. "Our one year commitment to work in his lab is coming to a close in less than a cycle and a half."

"Oh, stop," she said dismissively. "It's all going to be fine, I don't need to hear about the journey. The destination is good."

"I wish I had your confidence," Kunzite murmured. "It's becoming harder and harder for me to even imagine a positive outcome, honestly."

"Re-considering my suggestion?" she asked sarcastically. "Again, I would personally prefer that you didn't, but if you seem so convinced that this can only end in your death, it would just be smart to find a way to disappear."

"I…" he shook his head. "No. I'm not doing that. My fate is tied to Prince Endymion's fate. If he has done things that doom him to an early death, then all there is for me to do is to either do everything I can to stop it or to die with him."

"I'm sure you've been told things like that over and over in the last few years, and it's easy for you to convince yourself it's true, but I'm telling you, it doesn't have to be," Venus continued.

"Are you sure you don't want me to run away?" Kunzite asked, continuing to blow thick plumes of smoke out of the cigar, up towards the air vent above his head, the fumes quickly getting sucked in. "Because you sure seem set on convincing me."

She shrugged. "You won't be any good to me dead. What I want is for you to do what I know you're the best in the universe at, and eliminate your target, but if you're so convinced that you can't do it, then why not act in self-preservation." She propped her head up on her right palm, putting her elbow down into the mattress. "It's not as if you spent your whole life thinking you were going to be an Earth general, did you? You must have imagined yourself doing something else with your life before that."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kunzite asked.

"I'm just saying, it shouldn't be that hard for you to imagine yourself doing something else. You weren't just born to be the Prince's bodyguard without any other possibility. Come on, what did you think you were going to do with your life before becoming a general was on the table?"

Kunzite lightly scowled, staring down at the lit tip of his cigar.

"Don't tell me you were thinking about being an Earth general when you were six years old or something," Venus teased.

"Regional governor," Kunzite said after a moment. "That's what I thought I was going to be when I was younger."

"Oh boy," Venus groaned.

"I'm serious," Kunzite said. "My father's a local governor for a small county in the eastern hemisphere called Kaggir. It just made sense that I would try to take the next step up from his position and be placed in charge of the entire region. That's the way it was going to go until my father realized that my abilities would be wasted behind a desk. And of course, there's no higher position of power I can aspire to than to be the right hand of the future King."

"Local governor?" Venus repeated. "That's a little disappointing."

"What?" Kunzite asked competitively.

"Oh, nothing, just...your ascent to having such an important role in the Earth Palace isn't quite as impressive when you've got a silver spoon in your mouth," Venus said casually.

"That doesn't happen," Kunzite said defensively. "You don't go from the slums to the palace, that's fairytale nonsense." He sternly pointed his right index finger over towards the blonde princess. "Jadeite's father owns the biggest shipping company in the far east. Nephrite's father was a seven-time All-World professional handball player—"

"Okay, okay!" Venus said, waving her hand casually over towards the Earth general. "I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it."

"All...all Earth generals come from wealthy families," he muttered.

"Either way, that's not exactly what I meant," Venus said dryly. "What did you think you wanted to be? Not what someone told you you were going to be, or what you needed to be to advance the family lineage. What would you have done if you didn't have any of that pressure? What if you could have just done whatever you liked the most?"

Kunzite shifted his head back and forth slowly a few times, tilting it around.

"Please tell me you had hobbies or something," she goaded.

"Hunter," he finally said. "Like a trophy hunter. I think I would have liked that. I did a lot of hunting growing up."

"Okay, now we're talking," Venus encouraged.

"In the woods outside Kaggir there are a lot of Cabaras. You know what those are?" he asked.

"Not a clue," she admitted.

"Four-legged. Big. Pretty similar to a wolf, but a lot more vicious and deadly. They serve no useful purpose, they're just menaces that attack and kill people. There are no restrictions or regulations on hunting them, there's no interest in keeping them alive. On more than a few occasions, we've had squadrons of elite soldiers comb through the entire forest, trying to exterminate them, but you can never get them all. They live deep in caves, underground tunnels. It takes a lot to put one down. They move quickly. Even if you get ninety percent of them, a year later they've bred their way back. But we do what we can to keep their numbers down. So, every autumn and spring after I turned thirteen, I would get out there with my father and brothers as often as possible, and mow down as many of them as we could."

"Okay, that's the kind of stuff I like," Venus said, pointing emphatically over at Kunzite. "That's how I wanted to imagine you were raised."

"Now, most people, the only objective was to kill them. Obviously, right? Big, ferocious pack animals that think nothing of ripping a full-grown man to pieces in a matter of beats, if you run into one, all you want to do is fill it with holes until it can't hurt you anymore. But sometimes, you'd be able to sneak up on one that had strayed away from the pack, was all alone. And me, well, when something like that happened, I liked to go for bonus points. I wanted a skin. Something you could carve up and stuff, make a statue out of. You'd have to plug them right in the neck, right in the spine, or else you'd just make them mad, and then it'd just become about survival. Hardly anyone ever even tried, but I always did. I have eight stuffed Cabaras in a display room back home in Kaggir. More than half of all currently in existence. A collector offered me half a million creds for one of them, but I can't bring myself to part with them."

"So, what you're saying is, you could have been the greatest trophy hunter who ever lived," Venus suggested.

"Maybe," Kunzite acknowledged.

"So it shouldn't be that hard for you to imagine doing something else! That's all I'm trying to say. Just something to consider," she insisted.

"Well, I'm not considering it," Kunzite said as Venus curled up closer to his side. "And after I'm done with this, I have to go." He held the cigar up in front of his face before resuming working on it.

There was a short silence in the room, Kunzite blowing more smoke up towards the vent.

"To be clear, I don't want you to," Venus finally said. "I want you to bury Cronus like I know you're fully capable of doing, I want you to come out on the other side of all this without a speck of dirt on you, and I want our business relationship to continue for years."

"You know, Your Highness, it's only because of Cronus that we have a laboratory and materials. Once he's gone, I'm not sure how we continue to work together," Kunzite pointed out.

She shrugged. "Then we figure something out. That's too much potential money for any of us to just walk away from. But it only matters if you stay alive."

"

"Uh, Serenity, sweetie, it's me. Um, I just...I just wanted to talk to you real quick, but, uh...well, I just wanted you to know that...well, I love you."

Serenity pursed her lips down at her disc-shaped communicator as the holographic soundwave disappeared, and she quickly reached forward to tap a button along the outer edge of it.

"Uh, Serenity, sweetie, it's me. Um, I just...I just wanted to talk to you real quick, but, uh...well, I just wanted you to know that...well, I love you."

After this repetition of the recorded message, Serenity, curled up on the bed inside Prince Endymion's bedroom, turned her focus to a text-filled tablet in front of her, holding it up in front of her face. A news story was spread out along the screen.

 _HEAD SCIENTIST AT GALEN LABORATORIES FOUND DEAD IN SPACE, FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED_

With her face lined with wrinkles born of concern, she scanned the cycle-old story, detailing the report of Viluy's corpse being found amid a wrecked freighter in the middle of deep space. She had already read the story before, and had heard about the incident when it had originally happened. But there was something about it that was starting to nag at the back of her mind, something that made her keep coming back to it.

The bedroom door opening didn't distract her from her readings, and neither did the collection of young men piling into the room. She barely paid attention as her husband began speaking.

"Rule number one, burn these to cinders when you're done with them," Endymion said, tossing a stack of text-covered sheets of paper onto the bed next to his blonde wife. "No paper trail, ever. Just count it up, and…"

Endymion trailed off on realizing that she wasn't paying attention to him, leaning over to look at the tablet in her hands. "Hey, sweetie?"

Serenity slowly brought her head around to look at her husband, now noticing that all four of his generals were behind him as well.

"Something the matter?" Endymion asked, blanching a bit when he realized what she was looking at on her tablet.

"That call you made to me a while ago. Why did you do that?" she asked.

"W-...what? What are you talking about?" He blinked rapidly a few times, still clearly focusing on the news story she held in her hands.

"That call, you left the recording, you just said that...that you loved me. Just out of nowhere, no context, just...why? What got you to do that?"

"Oh, what, I shouldn't have?" Endymion shrugged. "Come on, I can't just tell my wife that I love her? I have to have a reason?" He reached over, trying to gently take the tablet out of her hands. "Now—"

"Did you know this person?" she asked suddenly, yanking the tablet back towards her and away from Endymion's fingers, tilting the screen towards him. "This woman, were you working with her?"

"U-uh...w-what?" Endymion's face puckered up. "Where did THAT come from?"

"This woman, she was the lead scientist for Galen Laboratories," Serenity continued. "Run by Cronus. That's who you've been working with, right?"

"Uh, I...oh, Gods," Endymion muttered, spinning around and heavily falling back into a sitting position on the bed, groaning as he did so. "How do you have time for all this sleuthing? You've got a young daughter."

"So, it is? There aren't that many people in the galaxy that it could be. It makes too much sense. It's him, isn't it?" she continued, rolling up onto all fours and putting her head up by Endymion's shoulder.

"Serenity, you don't need to know everything about what I'm doing," Endymion grumbled. "It doesn't matter who I'm working with, it's actually _better_ you don't know. He might see you knowing as a problem. He wouldn't like it." He waved his hand over towards his four generals. "Okay, we're taking up their time now too, they're here to go over some figures with you, can we get to that?"

"Endy, did you know Viluy?" Serenity continued to press, clearly unwilling to just drop things. "The lead scientist for Galen, you were making imperium for Galen, you must have been working together."

'I was, maybe, a few times, in the same room as her," Endymion said, clearly annoyed. "I wasn't working with her, most of the time we weren't even on the same planet. She really had nothing to do with my work."

"And then she just shows up dead like that?"

"Nothing to do with me!" Endymion insisted. "I...I don't know what happened there. R-read the follow-up stories, I'm pretty sure it was some sort of terrorist attack, unrelated to me!"

"Are you sure?" she continued, voice laced with urgency. "Because, I've been thinking lately. The black eyes, that call, it just...are you in some sort of danger?"

Endymion sighed. "Serenity, we've been over this. I'm just a man with an extremely well-paying job."

"No, I don't think so," she continued. "I think you called me because...because you were afraid. Like, you were scared that it might be your last chance to say something to me."

"Serenity, that's ridiculous," Endymion snapped. "I...I'm the Crown Prince of Earth, next in line to become the High King, possibly the most powerful person in the galaxy. Nobody is going to do anything to me. Things like that don't happen. I wouldn't put myself in that situation if there was danger."

"Then why don't you quit today?" Serenity asked. "Just stop going in to work, call Cronus and tell him that you can't do this anymore. You said you couldn't. Said you were stuck working for him."

"Because...because, I made an agreement with Cronus, and I want to honor it," Endymion protested, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.

"Endymion, I mean it," Serenity continued. "If you are in danger, then you need to extricate yourself from this business. _Nothing_ else matters. If you're in danger, we go to your father."

Endymion hiccuped with laughter. "Oh, my father, that's a wonderful idea. He'll be so understanding and supportive when he realizes what I've been doing the last year. Serenity, listen to yourself."

"It's better than you...you going into work one day and getting shot in the head!" Serenity yelped.

"Oh...you're reading too many fiction books!" Endymion shook his head. "I'm not getting shot in the head. And by the way, if I do go to my father, I spend the rest of my life in prison, so I'm not really seeing that as a viable option."

"Well...definitely not," Zoisite chimed in, finally bringing the four generals back into some degree of focus in the conversation.

"Hm?" Serenity prompted.

"Just...you wouldn't go to prison," Zoisite explained. "You have the most valuable bargaining chip in the universe. Enough imperium to run the galaxy for over a century. Whatever happens, we can use that to cut any kind of deal we want."

"Okay...no one asked you," Endymion said gruffly, waving his hand over towards Zoisite, who quickly faltered. "And either way, my father will disown me if he finds out about all this. I'm potentially a couple cycles away from being given the throne, I'm not doing anything to endanger that right now!"

"Better disowned than dead!" Serenity pointed out. "You can go buy a nice vacation home on Neptune or Mercury, live out the rest of your life in comfort and luxury, I...Endy, I am not saying any of this lightly. I understand, this is not what I want. But I think your life is in danger."

Endymion got to his feet, resting his hands on his hips, aimlessly pacing a few steps back and forth.

"I don't think you're telling me everything, Endy. I think you're in over your head. You've spent your whole life in a palace, surrounded by servants, you're not someone who can...just become the kind of person who can...who face death every day! You're not some hardened criminal!" She sighed. "I tried, Endy. I tried to be okay with this, but...really. You have a daughter, you're a father. You can _not_ put yourself in this situation if you're in danger."

"Serenity," Endymion said sternly. "You don't understand what's going on here." He pointed up towards the ceiling. "There's a freighter currently out in the middle of deep space holding quadrillions of creds in raw imperium. It's the only thing that can save this galaxy from complete collapse over the next century." He tapped himself on the chest with his right palm. "And nobody can get to it but me. That makes me untouchable!"

"Endy, no—" Serenity started.

"I'm the lynchpin holding this entire solar system together! Without me, it'll all be doomed to fall into darkness. Do you have any idea how much money I make Galen Laboratories every single day? No business, no corporation in the entire galaxy generates more profit than I do. Organizations with hundreds of buildings, millions of employees, I outdo them all with one partner and a single lab. And without me, it's gone forever! So long as that imperium belongs to me, I'm bulletproof! I have nothing to fear, nobody can touch me. I'm not just the man you married anymore."

"Oh, believe me, I know," Serenity said thickly.

"No, you don't," he insisted. "Clearly, you don't. You still think I'm that...clueless kid! As if I just fell backwards into this world, that I don't belong here. Serenity, I'm here because I'm the most important, most powerful person in the galaxy! Nothing real, nothing significant happens without my permission! I die, the galaxy dies!"

Serenity sighed, covering her face with her hands. "Endy, you can't honestly think any of that. You're not invincible. These things you're saying, none of that is going to save you." Slowly, she looked up, over at the bedroom door. "The more I think about it, the more I...I just feel like, one day, these people that you're working with. They're going to come here, kick that door down, and kill us both. A-and all this, all this...talk, all these things you're saying, none of it is going to save you. You're still just a man."

Endymion seemed halfway to seething at that statement. "You really don't get it. You still don't." He pointed over at the door. "It won't be this door. And I'll be the one kicking it down." With that statement, he turned on his heel and marched right through his gathered generals, all four of them jumping to the side to clear way for him as he went over to the bathroom. Serenity continued to glumly stare over towards the bedroom door, all four generals watching the Prince slam the door shut behind him.

Amid the uneasy tension, Jadeite leaned in close to Kunzite's ear, whispering below the notice of the Princess. "My room, tonight, after dinner."

Kunzite quickly nodded as Jadeite moved to repeat the short message to his other fellow generals.

"

Jadeite, with a couple of emphatic thumb-presses on the remote, engaged the locking mechanisms in the door of his room, assuring a solid seal between the four Earth generals and the outside world. He tossed the remote down to the bed surface, then looked around at his three colleagues.

"Alright, gentlemen, it's time. We need to have a real conversation about this," Jadeite began.

"Yes, you should trade for defender depth, your left flank is weak and you need the team to win now so you can turn around and sell them for a profit," Nephrite said.

"I'm trying to be serious here!" Jadeite snapped. "And I don't need you to tell me how to run a handball team, by the way."

Jadeite leaned back, hands on the bed surface behind him to support his weight. Nephrite and Kunzite stood right across from him, in front of the wardrobe, both staring at him. Zoisite was curled up in the corner, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"Anyway, I think we all know what's going on here." He looked over at Kunzite. "Buddy, we've already talked about this, and I've tried to see it your way, I've tried to just ignore things and trust your judgement, but...look, I'm not by myself here. I've talked to Zoisite and Nephrite over the last cycle, in private, and they're seeing the same things I am."

"Can we get on the same page here?" Kunzite asked. "What are you talking about?"

Jadeite rolled his eyes. "The Prince! Knock it off, you know exactly what this is about! We need to take action, fast."

Zoisite bit down on his lower lip. "I'm certainly not happy about it, but...it might be time to actually do something about this. You should know better than any of us, things have gotten out of hand."

Kunzite sighed. "Can't stand up to me on your own, so you get them to back you up, I see."

"It's not like that!" Jadeite protested. "Look, I just...I needed to know that other people were seeing the same things that I am. It's not just me."

"Kunzite, he's got a point," Nephrite chimed in, turning towards the eldest of the four generals. "I get it, my job is to follow orders, but there's another consideration here."

"Alright. Fine." Kunzite squared up towards Jadeite. "Lay it on me. What's on your mind?"

Jadeite sighed. "We all have the same order from the High King. We serve the Prince, but we also monitor him. All four of us were warned that he might have inherited his mother's mental illnesses. And that if we had reason to believe that he had, we had to report it to the High King."

"Yes, I'm aware," Kunzite stated.

"Well, from my perspective, the Prince has exhibited behavior and taken actions that give plenty of reason to believe that he's got his mother's illness. So, I'm suggesting that we need to take this to the High King, now. Need I remind you that he's just a cycle or two away from taking the throne, at which point none of this will matter?"

"Okay," Kunzite said. "Where do I start?"

"I r-really wanted to wait for you to realize it on your own, I thought that...with you spending so much time around him by yourself, you'd figure it out on your own, but we're running out of time!" Jadeite said, speech hurried and quick. "Kunzite, please, he's...he got himself neck deep in the criminal underworld for no reason, that alone is enough to suspect that he's not right in the head. And the fact that...I mean, really, he's marching into that lab every other day, knowing that one day he's going to be walking right into his own execution, and he just keeps doing it! Sane people don't do that!"

"Because he has no other choice," Kunzite stated flatly. "And no, turning himself in to his father is not a choice."

"Isn't it?" Zoisite said. "We already discussed this, he'd never see the inside of a prison cell once they realize what he has to bargain with."

"It doesn't matter, it's not an option, you heard him this morning," Kunzite insisted.

"Did _you_ hear him this morning?" Jadeite snapped, jolting up into a standing position. "Ranting and raving about how...nobody can do anything to him, that he's invincible, and you know better than anyone that none of that is true! How can you listen to him act like that and not conclude that something is wrong with him?!"

"He knows it's not true," Kunzite said, putting his right hand out towards Jadeite to try to calm him down. "I assure you, he knows exactly where he stands. He was just...trying to ease Serenity's concerns."

"Well, he did an _amazing_ job of that," Nephrite muttered. "Probably just made it worse."

"That's besides the point," Kunzite dismissed hurriedly. "The point is, he doesn't actually believe that he's bulletproof."

"Alright," Zoisite said. "We can debate the little things, but the bigger point remains. Endymion's been acting oddly for a year now. And we have our order from the High King."

"Yes, we do," Kunzite said. "Our order is to inform him if we are given reason to believe that Prince Endymion has inherited his mother's mental illness." He tilted his head to the right. "Are any of you aware of what happened to his mother?"

"Every case is different, dementia...can manifest itself in different ways," Zoisite pointed out.

"She was forgetting words, dropping her train of thought constantly, struggling to string sentences together. I've seen none of that with the Prince, and none of you have either," Kunzite countered. "The High King never asked us to inform him if his son started acting strangely, or made questionable decisions. It was specific to dementia. And I see nothing here to indicate dementia."

"Well, none of us are doctors!" Jadeite spread his arms out to his sides. "None of us have the knowledge or training to diagnose mental illness, all we can do is make educated guesses, and then hand it off to the experts. And what we've seen is enough to make an educated guess that he's not right." He stared over at Kunzite. "Kunzite, if there's something really wrong with him, and he takes the throne, what do you think is going to happen to the Kingdom of Earth? Are we really going to just sit there and let that happen?"

"Okay." Kunzite leaned up against the wardrobe doors behind him. "So. How exactly do we tell the High King about our concerns without admitting to his activities over the last year? I'm sure you have a plan for that, because sure you can't be thinking that our next move is to confess all of his crimes to the High King."

Jadeite pushed his right hand's fingers through his blond hair. "Kunzite, this is bigger than that now! We are nearing the point of no return! Order One becomes moot as soon as he takes the throne. The whole Kingdom is at risk."

"What happens in your head once we bring all this before the High King?" Kunzite questioned. "What do you think happens to us, once Kasios is told that we've been helping him all this time? That we've had every opportunity to stop him, and have done the exact opposite?"

"We were following our orders," Nephrite said. "Our instructions are to serve the Prince, we were doing that. Our belief that he might be suffering from dementia is something that developed very recently, at which point Order One took priority."

"Alright. Suppose you're wrong," Kunzite continued. "Suppose that he's fine, no mental illnesses, no signs of his mind deteriorating. Suppose all the best experts in the galaxy come together to run every test known to man, and they come back with nothing. What happens then?"

Jadeite sighed, giving a grumpy glance over to the wall to his left.

"We will be responsible for the Prince being disowned and removed from the line of succession. You get that? You see how high the stakes are? You three starting to understand that we can't just go hand a report off to his father and then just hope everything works out?" He shrugged. "Guys, think it through."

A thick silence hung in the room for several beats.

"Princess Serenity had the right idea this morning," Zoisite mumbled, barely audible. "Better than him being dead."

"Is it?" Kunzite asked.

"Wh-...yes, yes it's better!" Jadeite jumped in enthusiastically. "Kunzite, you care about him, I know you do! You said it yourself, he has a noose around his neck, he's just waiting for Cronus to yank the rope! Mentally ill or not, if we turn him in to his father, at least he'll be safe!"

"It's not our place to make that decision," Kunzite insisted. "We are duty-bound to a strict and narrow interpretation of Order One, that's it."

"...well...maybe we shouldn't be," Jadeite continued, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. "At least he'll be safe in an interrogation room on board _The Savery_ , telling the agency everything he knows about Cronus. He wouldn't have to stick his head back out until until he and his whole operation is reduced to ashes. We're supposed to protect him, aren't we?"

"He would not consider it to be protecting him if our actions guarantee he never takes the throne," Kunzite reminded his younger colleague.

"Kunzite," Zoisite began. "Do you have...any confidence, any reason to believe that you can handle Cronus before he acts? Do you even have a plan right now?"

Finally, Kunzite's resolve faltered a bit in the face of that question, and he glanced down towards the ground. "It's a...it's a long process."

"So what are we talking about here?" Zoisite continued. "Nothing for us to do but just sit here and wait for him to get killed? I hate to say it, but Jadeite's right. Even if we're wrong, we can save his life by doing this. I'll agree with you, he probably doesn't have what his mother had. I hear you. But maybe this is the time to stretch the language of the order a bit in order to save the Prince from something worse."

Kunzite exhaled out of his mouth, still looking rather defiant even as his strict incredulity was beginning to crumble. "You're all fools if you think we won't be banished," he reminded them. "Even if we bargain our way out of prison."

"We'll live," Nephrite reasoned. "Which is more than we can say for you if you keep showing up at that lab."

"Kunzite, I'll bottom-line it," Zoisite began. "All three of us are on the same page. We think it's time to take this to the High King, and we've all had the chance to weigh the risks and downsides. Maybe it's not exactly what his mother had, but it's getting harder to deny that something is wrong with him, and he might not be fit to rule, that alone is enough reason." He pointed both hands over towards the elder general. "But we're not doing anything without a unanimous decision. It's up to you."

"Well, good," Kunzite said. "Because if any of you were to try to sneak around behind my—"

"Kunzite, none of us are going to do that," Nephrite interrupted. "You've been around him longer than any of us, you know him better than us, you spend more time with him than us, nobody is better qualified to make the final call than you are. You deserve to decide this."

"But you really have to decide it!" Jadeite added. "That means, you need to actually really think about it. Think about his actions, his words, his behavior, put it all together in your head, and decide, is this enough of a warning signal to report it? You need to actually be objective about it. Not just...standing here, arguing for the sake of arguing, or arguing because you don't want to see Endymion disowned. You need to give this an honest shot in your mind."

Zoisite nodded. "Kunzite, please. I know you don't want to do it, but you need to think about whether or not you need to do it." He pointed towards the door. "So, you go do whatever you want to do tonight, mull it over, really try to consider all the angles...and you tell us what you want to do in the morning. And whatever choice you make, we'll respect, but we need you to actually take it seriously."

Kunzite had fallen silent for quite a long time now, listening to their request of him, and found himself continuing to weaken in his resistance in the face of the more reasoned discussion on their part. He straightened himself up off the wall, blinking rapidly. "A-alright. Sure. Tomorrow morning before breakfast."

"Really think about it!" Jadeite insisted. "Please! Because, really...I think he needs help."

"I will," Kunzite said, voice quiet and not as commanding as usual. "Just...the ramifications of taking this action are massive."

"The ramifications of inaction might be bigger," Zoisite pointed out. "You know history. What happens to Kingdoms when they're ruled by someone mentally unsound?"

He gave a half-hearted shrug, then turned towards the door. "Unlock please," he murmured.

"

Kunzite sat at the bottom edge of his bed, staring straight forward at the wall of his boring, dull, uninteresting bedchamber, doing exactly what his colleagues had requested he do. He was deep in thought, considering every single action that the Prince had taken since that day in the mines, remembering every word that he had personally heard come from his mouth.

"

 _"I'm sorry."_

 _Before Jericho could reply, Endymion kneeled down by his head, grabbing him by the hair and holding him with his left hand. His right hand emerged from his inside pocket, holding a broad dagger, maybe a couple palms long. In a single, smooth motion, he jammed the sharp blade into the back of Jericho's neck, firmly shoving it through the flesh, pushing it all the way to the hilt._

 _Endymion knew enough about human anatomy to know that his goal was to sever the spinal cord, cutting the brain off from the rest of the body's nervous system. Quick and relatively painless. He tried to focus his mind on little informational factoids like that, and not the horrible little death rattle that Jericho gave off as his body stiffened, then relaxed, falling limp to the stone floor._

 _Endymion withdrew the blade from Jericho's body, quickly standing up and releasing his head. Without even really thinking about it, he dropped the weapon to the floor, vaguely hearing it clang and clatter against the rock ground. He took a couple shaky steps back from the warm corpse on the ground, staring down at the panicked expression on its face._

 _He felt a vague swirling in his head now. He felt dizzy, detached. His arms went slack at his sides, suddenly feeling quite weak. Unpleasant tastes were building inside his mouth._

 _And then, he was pulled out of this miasma by Kunzite roughly grabbing his right shoulder and spinning him a quarter-turn so they were looking right at each other. His expression contained a level of rage that Endymion didn't know his guardian could possibly direct at him._

 _"You should have let me do that," Kunzite growled, staring Endymion directly in the eyes, reaching up to grab Endymion's hair and holding him._

 _"I...I…" Endymion babbled, still feeling slightly shaky and hard of breath._

 _"What are you thinking?" Kunzite snapped, closely examining Endymion's wide, dilated eyes. "I never asked you to be the executioner, I would never ask that."_

…

 _"Go ahead, then," Endymion dared. "Kill me, get the raw product from Kunzite, and then kill him. I've made it very easy for you, and you seem to have plenty of confidence in your ability to somehow get away with it, I'd be fascinated to hear how you plan on pulling that off, actually. Kill us, and leave yourself with a hole in the ground worth tens of millions of creds. Your dealers will have nothing to distribute, your entire distribution chain collapses without us. And if you're fine with that, then you go right ahead."_

 _Cronus, with nothing but a twitch of his finger between him and killing Endymion, continued to just hold in that pose, the barrel of the weapon starting to shake slightly._

 _"Do it," Endymion taunted. "Throw away a revenue stream worth hundreds of billions of creds, destroy the infrastructure you've spent the last decade building, surely that's how a successful businessman does things. Do it. Do it!" He took a few more steps towards Cronus. "DO IT!"_

 _Finally, Cronus slowly lowered the barrel of the gun down towards his side, an action that seemed to take no small amount of effort. Kunzite released a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding in. Though the thick tension in the room remained for several beats, eventually, the weapon was pointed down at the floor, no longer an imminent threat to Endymion._

 _"Yeah," Endymion growled._

…

 _Endymion closed his eyes, right hand closing down on the lever as his left hand went across his body to rest against the jump button. The alarms kept screaming at him, protesting against every single movement he made, and the flashing red lights felt like they were boring through his eyelids. Nevertheless, he slowly brought the thin, silver lever back towards him._

 _He was snapped from his trance-like state as Kunzite's large hand grabbed his left wrist and ripped it away from the button. He opened his eyes just in time to watch his white-haired guardian yank him out of the pilot seat and spin him over towards the right side of the cockpit, with more than enough force to get him to let go of the silver lever._

 _Frantically, Kunzite pushed the lever back into a forward position, then pulled back on the one above the seat. The audible and visual alarms deactivated, instantly easing the environment of the cockpit by eliminating the red tinge that filled the entire compartment. As if racing against the clock, he zipped through menu options on the ship's main control panel to reactivate the jump lock, making sure that the ship would only accelerate to maximum speed if the route plotted was obstruction-free._

 _With the immediate danger sated, Kunzite turned to face his charge, mouth slightly open as he looked him over. Clearly too shocked to say anything, he just slowly let his eyes scan the Prince up and down, as if expecting him to suddenly morph into a demon, with the real Endymion tied up somewhere in a bathroom._

…

 _"I was just thinking...wouldn't be such a bad way to go," Endymion continued, looking back out towards the freighter in the distance, which was now moving purposefully to the east. "Would look like an accident or a malfunction. Nobody would be wondering what happened to us. Be instantaneous, we wouldn't feel a thing. And, hopefully, nobody would ever find out about all the things we've done over the last year."_

 _Kunzite's forehead knitted together as Endymion slowly put his hands behind his back, clasping them together._

 _"That wouldn't be such a bad thing. You know, I had sex last night?" He turned back around to face his guardian. "I felt it, too. For a few minutes, we loved each other again. All the shit from the last year just...melted away, and we were just husband and wife again. Not a bad final memory to leave. I wouldn't mind going out on that note."_

 _"Endymion, I...I—"_

 _"It's better than just...waiting," Endymion interrupted. "Waiting for Cronus to decide he doesn't need us anymore...waiting for my father to peel back the layers and drill down to the truth...hell, waiting for our billion dollar money laundering scheme to get exposed. Honestly, I don't know which way I'd rather go down anymore." He shrugged. "At least this way, it'd be on my terms. I'd see it coming. Just...seems like it'd be better."_

"

Forcing himself to give an honest assessment of the situation, he began to realize how strong of a case was being put in front of him. And even though his heart was doing everything it could to convince himself that there was no decision to make, his mind was starting to fight against that.

It wasn't often that Kunzite didn't know what to do. But it was starting to happen more and more often lately.

He thought about Endymion's mother, who had gone from a mentally sharp woman to a babbling invalid in a year. And despite his insistence on following orders to the letter, he also thought about Cronus, looming over the both of them with an axe, just waiting for the right moment to swing it down.

Was he going to be able to protect the Prince from Cronus when the time came? Was he better off under protection from the agency?

There were many thoughts racing through his head, bouncing around, and the more time Kunzite found himself taking this possible course of action seriously, the more painful he found it.

Suddenly, he jumped to his feet and marched over to the wardrobe. Pulling it open, he began fumbling through the half-dozen uniforms, large fingers feeling the pockets until finding one with a hard object inside it. Reaching inside, he pulled out a large gold coin. On one side, a picture of a fancy crown was imprinted in the metal. With a quick flick of his thumb, he saw the other side, a rough engraving of the Earth Palace. Some tiny alphanumeric strings went along the top and bottom of this side of the coin as well.

Glancing to his left, then his right, just to make sure he was at least alone, he propped the coin up on the top of his coiled thumb. He took several beats, frozen in this position, and then fired his thumb up. The coin spun around rapidly in midair, launching up high above Kunzite's head before rapidly falling down back to Earth.

It bounced a few times on the carpet before coming to rest, occasionally flashing a bright bit of shine up towards Kunzite as it reflected back the lights.

Kunzite slowly crouched down over the coin as it stopped moving.

"

"Alright, let's get this batch started," Endymion said, quickly jumping into the protective suit and zipping it upwards, covering his entire body. "I want to get home as fast as possible for tonight."

Kunzite absentmindedly scratched at his face, staring over at his charge with a pensive look. After a few beats, the Prince gave him an odd look.

"What are you waiting for, get in the suit!" he called out. "Something the matter?"

Kunzite seemed to startle awake at this. "O-oh, no, sorry, Your Highness, uh…" he shuffled over to the hangar that supported the weight of the various protection suits and took one off. "I'll start on pouring the Phental into the vat."

Endymion, just about to finish zipping the suit all the way up to his neck, suddenly turned towards his guardian. "Um, not before you get the acidity right, I hope."

"Hm?" Kunzite said.

"If you put the Phental in before the acidity is at the right level, it reacts and transforms into gas," Endymion said quickly. "Am I remembering that right? We don't want that."

"Mm," Kunzite muttered. "My mistake, Your Highness, I was just...skipping steps verbally." He began to open up the full-body suit. "What are you going to soak the catalyst bed with?"

Endymion looked up. "Probably around a point seventy-one concentration. Should probably be a little higher since it was so low by the time we finished up last time. Maybe even point seventy-three."

Kunzite gave a thin little smile to himself.

"Why are you asking me?" Endymion asked. "Don't tell me you're starting to slip a bit, Kunzite. You know I need you. If you're mind starts failing you, we're all doomed."

"Oh, just...wanted to see how you felt about it," Kunzite said quietly, nodding to himself.

"

It bounced a few times on the carpet before coming to rest, occasionally flashing a bright bit of shine up towards Kunzite as it reflected back the lights.

Kunzite slowly crouched down over the coin as it stopped moving.

The Earth Palace was pointing up towards him.

Kunzite grimaced, and again twisted his head back and forth to check that he was still alone.

Quickly, his right hand darted down towards the coin and quickly flicked it over, leaving the crown side face-up. Just as fast as it stopped moving, he scooped it up in his fingers and closed his fist around it, as if he was trying to quickly hide it.

Unleashing a stress-reducing, shoulder-heaving sigh, rapidly shook his head back and forth, long white hair flying in all directions. His decision concluded, Kunzite turned his focus to easier considerations, like preparing for his trip to the lab tomorrow.


	44. Family Is Still All

A/N: First of all, my apologies for the long delay with this chapter. Assorted real life things kept hitting me hard and I was simply unable to focus much on writing this last month. I believe things will start to improve shortly.

Second, I have now officially hit ten thousand views on this story, so I want to reiterate my thanks to all my readers and followers. I deeply appreciate all your support through this last year, I certainly wouldn't have gotten this far without all of you, and I want to say thank you to all of you for that.

"

Chapter 44: Family Is Still All

"This can't be real," Kasios muttered under his breath, staring up at the screen being projected on the blank white wall of his bedroom. A starmap was displayed from a tiny projector, showing the Earth and Venus, their orbit-lines around the sun, and a solid green line trailing between the two planets. "What is up with this guy?"

Endymion casually glanced out the back windows of Kasios's bedroom, feigning disinterest as Kasios started rapidly scrolling through more star maps, each one showing different parts of the solar system, and each one with a green line on it.

"What's the matter?" Endymion asked.

"This guy is a robot," Kasios said. "Goes from his lab on Earth to his lab on Mercury, goes to his lab on Uranus, goes to his head office on Jupiter, meets with one of his major shareholders on Earth, just...back and forth, back and forth between Galen installations and offices. He didn't flush the radiation for twenty days, twenty days I got to track his every move, and I've got nothing to work with. He never goes anywhere except where he's supposed to be."

Endymion shrugged. "I did...I did tell you that it was a bit of a long shot. Businessman and scientist like that, all that money, no point in messing around with the black market."

"No, no, this...I'm not buying it," Kasios insisted, still rapidly tapping through star maps on the wall. "Nobody operates like this. What, he just has no hobbies? Never goes to...to a casino, a club, a concert, just always back and forth between his facilities and labs? No way. What's the point of having all that money if you can't do something for fun every now and then?"

Endymion sighed. "Well, dad, maybe...Galen is a huge company, he probably doesn't have time for fun. Corporation that big, it probably does take every waking hour for him to keep it running."

Kasios shook his head. "What, he never blows off steam? Never just takes a night off? Remember, we met him that one night at the opera, so it's not like he _never_ does stuff like that."

"Okay, so, he hasn't done anything like that for the last twenty days, maybe," Endymion reasoned. "But dad, really, I'm telling you, he probably doesn't have much time. From the time I've spent around him, he's very busy. It makes sense too, think about how big Galen is!" He shrugged. "I respect the fact that you had a...a gut feeling. I'm sure those feelings are right more often than not, but...I think it's time to look somewhere else on this one."

Kasios pinched his upper lip together. "It's too clean, son. I'm...I'm not convinced. Actually, no, I'm more convinced now, I'm more convinced that he's hiding something big. Why would a man as wealthy as Cronus live such a boring life? The only reason would be that he has something to hide."

"O...okay, okay. Maybe," Endymion stammered. "But what now? You can't take something like that to the Grandmaster, that's not evidence, so we're right back where we were."

Kasios gave an uncomfortable little grunt. "Right. That is true. But I'm sure I'm right, so I can't just do nothing." He tapped his fingers on the desk in front of him a few times.

"Alright, what do you propose?" Endymion pressed, starting to sound a little frantic. "You have no resources, no backing, nothing. What do you think you can do?"

"That's the hard part," Kasios admitted. "I don't have any great ideas. But I'm not walking away from this. I want to pull the inventory manifests for all Galen installations, see if their input matches their output. Maybe we can find some unaccounted materials."

Endymion's face wrinkled up. "D-dad, there are...dozens of Galen Laboratory locations in the galaxy, it'll take you cycles to go through all that data by yourself. Don't be ridiculous."

Kasios bit down on his cheek. "Maybe years." He squinted. "Gods, I'm the High King of the Earth, I sit on the high council of the most powerful entity in the galaxy, and here I am, like I'm some academy dropout trying to scrape together some rent money by playing private detective."

"It's not a good look for you," Endymion agreed.

He rolled his eyes. "I almost wish...it's just impossible to even imagine, but last night, a thought did occur to me." He twisted around in his chair to look up at his son. "Imagine if we tried to run a honeypot on him with you. Of course, it could never be me, he'd never buy it, but maybe he'd buy it if it was you."

"Honeypot?" Endymion asked. "Dad, I don't know this...agency lingo, I don't know what that means."

"I just mean, maybe you could pretend to approach him, like you're interested in...getting involved in black market imperium. Say that you want to invest in it, be a part of his operation."

Endymion pressed his lips together tightly in a neutral smile, slowly putting his right hand behind himself and folding it into a fist. "O-oh. That's, uh...fun to think about."

"He'd never buy it. Actually, he might buy it less with you than he would with me." Kasios laughed to himself. "But you're right, it is fun to think about. Could you imagine the look on his face if you, of all people, went up to him and said you wanted in on his illegal dealings?" He shook his head. "He wouldn't believe it."

"Probably, probably not, you're right," Endymion agreed tersely.

"Sorry, son, you're the only resource I have right now," Kasios muttered. "I'm just trying to figure out how to leverage it. Not fair to you, Gods, I don't want to mess up your apprenticeship there. So close to it being done, too."

"So, anyway, here," Endymion said, going over to the left side of the desk and depositing a round black chip on it, right next to his father. "Overview of the state of finances. Going as well as we could hope. To sum it up for you, Berenson Jewelers has seen growth of thirteen percent over the last two cycles, so that's an additional…"

Endymion trailed off on realizing that his father wasn't particularly listening, staring up at the star charts yet again.

"Um...well, you'll see it all when you pull this up," Endymion said quietly, tapping his finger on the chip.

"O-oh, sorry son," Kasios said. "Uh, great work, great work, w-whatever it is. You're doing great."

"You haven't even looked," Endymion joked with a grin, relieved to have gotten his father off the subject of him having involvement in imperium, no matter how tangential and hypothetical it may have been.

"W-whatever it may be, I'm sure it's great. You're doing great work, son, I mean it. B-believe me, I've looked at the statements you've been giving me, I think...I think we're actually just about out of the danger zone."

Endymion nodded mutely.

"Hey, power usage!" Kasios suddenly said, seemingly getting jolted with a sudden burst of energy.

"I'm sorry?" Endymion asked.

"No, that might work, think about it. Galen installations purchase imperium wholesale from the agency, it'll be easy for me to check how much they buy every cycle. And remember that environmentalist non-profit, uh, Terrans for a Clean Future? They got Galen and Soranus to sign their pact, so they've got those sensors outside the vents at all their Earth-based locations! Maybe I can cross-reference that, see if any of those structures are using more power than they should! I mean, a secret imperium laboratory should be a significant power hog, right? Maybe I can cross-reference that data and find something that doesn't make sense!"

It took all of Endymion's willpower to keep from sighing.

"

"He won't drop it!" Endymion hissed, leaning over like a hunchback over the plain wooden table, glancing up at Kunzite on the opposite side of it. "I can't win, it's like...he's convinced that if he can't find any evidence of Cronus's involvement, it just makes him even _more_ sure he has to be guilty. Like, absence of evidence makes it more obvious that he's hiding something, and...I can barely get him to concentrate on the state of his own kingdom!"

Kunzite shrugged. "I mean, for whatever it's worth, he is right, Your Highness."

"I-I know!" Endymion groaned. "Believe me, I know, but I can't figure out for the life of me how he's figured it out so well! He's working with nothing." He leaned over a bit towards his guardian. "We _need_ to get Cronus out of the picture, Kunzite. I guarantee you, if he gets wind of how obsessed my dad is with pinning something on him, he's going to do something about it."

"I'm working on it," Kunzite said stiffly.

For security purposes, the Prince and his most trusted guard had been trying to move their more sensitive conversations out of the palace entirely, and were conducting most of their business in one of Kunzite's many safehouses scattered all across Earth. Each one was about as plain and forgettable as the last, which was very much the point, little more than a generic living space, the most basic of amenities available. This one was just a single large chamber, mostly lounge space with a small kitchen on the right side, plainly decorated and colored, everything designed around pure functionality.

Endymion puffed a large breath out of his nose. "Less than a cycle until the year-long commitment I made ends. There has to be a reason why he only wanted me to commit for that long."

"I know, believe me," Kunzite insisted. "I have a lead on him, he's expected to be at one of the Soranus locations in two days to film a promotional video for employees."

Endymion was able to muster up a tiny smile. "A promotional video. Certainly something he can't reschedule."

"Your Majesty, I know it looks concerning, but I promise you, I'm putting every asset I can muster up into tracking him."

"Concerning," Endymion repeated. "I don't even know why I bother getting worked up over this. Between Cronus and my father, there's just no way I'm not either dead or in a prison cell by the end of this cycle." He looked up at Kunzite. "Gods, maybe...maybe you shouldn't be working so hard on this. Just forget about it, let it go, whatever happens happens. Just enjoy the rest of your life the best you can."

"Your Highness, I'm not going to—"

"I know, I know, you're not wired that way, you couldn't make yourself do that if you tried, I get it," Endymion said, putting his hands up in the air. "I understand, but really. If we've only got a handful of days left, you should focus on trying to enjoy it." He looked down at the floor to his left. "That reminds me. You're making a drop with Princess Venus today, aren't you?"

"Yes, today's the day," Kunzite replied. "And, Your Highness, let me just say, we do not have a handful of days left. We're going to get out of this, you're going to take the throne, and you're going to have a long, successful reign as King of Earth."

"I'm not seven years old, you know," Endymion muttered. The Prince made to reach down beneath the table to grab something, but halfway down rose back up. "Anyway, uh, before I make unfair assumptions about things, I guess I should ask first. These trips you've been making to give Princess Venus imperium." He bobbed his head back and forth a couple times. "That's not the only thing you've been giving her, is it?"

Kunzite couldn't mask the flinch that rippled across his face, his eyes widening and cheeks tightening a bit. Endymion just gave his guardian a curious look, tilting his head to the right.

"U-um, well, what do you mean by that?" Kunzite asked evasively.

"Kunzite, I think you know. And before you give me an answer, understand that I'm willing to accept a lot of things from you, but lying to me isn't one of those things," Endymion said in a low-energy deadpan. "Now come on."

Kunzite bit his lower lip. "If you need me to stop, I will immediately, and—"

Endymion silenced his guardian with a wave of his right hand. "The way I see it, Kunzite, we're both probably about to be dead because of the decisions that I've made. So who am I to deprive you of your fun while you're still here?"

Kunzite, still rattled by being called out by his charge, was pulled between the desire to express gratitude and continue to insist that their mutual demise was not going to happen anytime soon. "Um, t-thank you, but—"

"However, Kunzite." Endymion's expression hardened. "If things go in our favor. If we live to see our next birthdays. Then there might come a time where my goals and Princess Venus's goals do not align. And if that happens, then I need you to have no doubt about where your loyalty lies."

"Oh, you have nothing to worry about, Your Highness," Kunzite said, instinctively straightening up a bit. "I know who I serve, believe me, and I'm never going to forget it."

Endymion nodded. "Then have fun." He reached down beneath the table with his left hand and lifted up a square wooden box, setting it down on the table with a little dull thud, then pushing it forward to slide it over to his guardian. "And how about you share this with her while you're at it?"

Kunzite regarded the wooden package for a moment, then reached forward to push the front lid of it off, sliding it upward to reveal the contents. A fat, round glass bottle was nestled into a pile of hay, filled with a light yellow liquid and sealed with a wax-covered cork. The front-facing label had the royal insignia on it, but it was otherwise unmarked.

Kunzite's forehead wrinkled as he tapped the front label with his left index finger. "Is this…"

"One of the gifts Queen Uranus sent me on my eighteenth birthday, yes," Endymion explained. "The only bottle of this particular concoction in existence. So they say, anyway." He shrugged. "Wouldn't be amazed if they've got a bottle of this stuff in every house over there, how would I know? But, they were quite insistent that this exact mix and aging process had never been used before and would never be used again."

"Are you sure you want to give this to me, Your Highness?" Kunzite asked, picking the bottle up and slowly rotating it around.

"Well, it's been three years, and I haven't even broken the seal yet. So clearly, I don't deserve it." He waved both his arms over towards Kunzite. "Come on, let me do something nice for you for once, after all the garbage I've put you through lately. It's yours, have fun with it."

With a tiny shrug, Kunzite replaced the bottle in the box and then slid the lid back in. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

A series of rapid-fire knocks at the door caused Endymion to frantically stagger up to his feet, as if he was almost scared of the sound, spinning to face the lone door into the room.

"I assure you, this safehouse is secure," Kunzite said.

"Oh, I know," Endymion agreed. "It's just, she's with them, isn't she?"

"Should be," Kunzite said.

"Alright, remember, nothing about any of this Cronus business in front of her," Endymion said, adjusting his outfit with both hands.

"I would never forget that," Kunzite assured him, getting to his feet and marching over to the door. Endymion continued to adjust himself in various ways, trying his best to make himself look like how he imagined someone in control and comfortable would look. "Coming!"

After a quick check through the peephole, Kunzite popped the door open, inviting Nephrite, Jadeite, Zoisite, and Princess Serenity inside, filing through into the room. Serenity immediately started spinning her head around, examining the room.

"Are you _sure_ I haven't been here before?" she asked, looking up over at Kunzite. "I feel like I have."

"My safehouses tend to look rather similar, Your Majesty," Kunzite acknowledged. "You haven't been here before."

"What's the fun in having all these different places if you can't even mix it up a bit with the decorating?" Serenity wondered.

"Well, we all have our priorities," Kunzite said, going over to the corner nearest the door and tapping a large luggage container with his foot. The large case began to levitate a finger-length or so off the ground. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a delivery to make." The wooden box tucked under his arm, Kunzite moved to depart.

As Kunzite made his way back to the wooden door built into the eastern side of the room, he tapped Jadeite on the right shoulder, a gesture that nobody else noticed. The blond general followed his elder colleague out of the room, the case hot on their heels out to a stone staircase that led up to ground level.

Meanwhile, as the door sealed shut to keep the happenings within the safehouse private, Serenity quickly laid eyes on the collection of black rectangular cases laying open on the floor. Each one was filled to capacity with assorted gemstones, ranging from as small as a pebble to as big as Serenity's thumb. She slowly walked over towards the obscene collection of valuable rocks, hand beneath her chin as she thought.

"Right, then," Endymion said assertively, slowly walking over to the small square table positioned right next to one of the mattresses on the other side of the room. "Our targets for this cycle are bold, but necessary. Neptune is being insistent on the agreed-upon payment plan being kept to, so we have to meet that, but once we clear what we owe to them, I believe all of the immediate danger will have been cleared. My father is looking for any excuse to pass the throne on to me." The Prince bent down to scoop up a small stack of papers. "If we can meet this, I believe he'll have it."

"So...you get paid this much every cycle?" Serenity asked, looking over the figurative sea of riches in front of her.

"Every ten days," Endymion corrected.

Serenity swallowed down hard. "Endy, you do realize that you're making money about...thirty or forty times faster than it can be laundered, right?" She looked over her shoulder at her husband.

"I have some idea of that, yes," Endymion said patiently.

"Are we just going to be laundering all of this for the rest of our lives?" She crouched down next to one of the cases, this one full of clear diamonds.

"Those kinds of questions are things you wouldn't have had to concern yourself with if you didn't choose to involve yourself in my business," Endymion said simply. "But you did. You were told that this could be a difficult and time-consuming endeavor, and you wanted to be part of it anyway."

"Is there any way you could get paid with, like...paper money?" Serenity asked. "Seems like it would be easier to launder."

"Not practical in these amounts," Endymion said. "Come on, Serenity, you've been placed in charge of a chain of jewelry stores, of all things. Be creative."

Serenity rolled her eyes as Endymion went over next to her, taking one of the sheets of paper off the top of the stack and holding it out towards her.

"

"Anything?" Kunzite asked, he and Jadeite standing a few steps up the short staircase that led back out into the outside world of Hectite City, Kunzite up just high enough to be able to see all around, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping.

"I mean, I told you to not get your expectations up," Jadeite said hesitantly in a hushed voice.

"So, no, then?" Kunzite inferred.

"I don't have friends back on Mars, Kunzite," Jadeite continued. "I'm really nothing like any of them, they never cared for me."

"Well, it was worth a try," Kunzite muttered.

"Not really," Jadeite retorted. "You know everyone over there thinks I'm a heathen."

"They _think_ you're a heathen?" Kunzite asked suggestively.

"Well, okay, fine, they know that...from their perspective, I'm a heathen, doesn't really matter. I have no friends over there. If your ultimate plan was to get a bunch of psychics together and use them to cook up some scheme to get us out of this, then sorry, maybe it's time to go to the High King about this."

"Enough of that," Kunzite growled, again peering up to judge the surrounding area outside the side of the small safehouse. "We're not going to the High King. And no, this wasn't my last idea."

"Hey, it'd be a great time to bust out whatever you've got left," Jadeite suggested.

"I'm aware," Kunzite said. "Alright, that's all I wanted to know. Just...be ready to move when you're called, we're down to the last half-cycle maybe." He reached forward and clapped Jadeite on the shoulder, quickly jogging up the last part of the stairs, massive luggage container following on his heels.

"

Cronus rubbed his left temple with his index finger, staring over at Eudial, the two of them sitting on opposite sides of the passenger tube of the Class B starship. Neither of them could feel so much as a shudder even as the ship zipped through space, along the orbital line of Uranus, at speeds that approached the maximum possible for a ship of such size.

"How close do you think he is to finding something significant?" Cronus asked, voice tempered and even, still managing to be controlled enough to imply a great deal of power despite a lack of volume or obvious viciousness.

"The High King has been poking around in the power usage of our laboratories since about ten days ago," Eudial explained. "Every single one on Earth. He's been working with that environmentalist group. I'm sure he's trying to see if any of our locations have been pulling more power than expected. If he's persistent in his efforts, he will likely notice a discrepancy at laboratory twenty-five."

Cronus sighed. "Then he's too close. The Prince hasn't held up his end."

"I'm inclined to agree," Eudial said. "But what do we do about it?"

Cronus sighed, putting his hands together in front of his chest, tilting his head down. "I think we've pushed this out as long as we can. We've made enough money to secure things on Saturn. We're just five days short of the original one-year agreement anyway, this was always the plan. Now we just have to eliminate loose ends."

"Been waiting to hear you say that for awhile," Eudial said. "I know the others have been too."

"You ready to pass a message along?" he asked.

"Ready and willing," Eudial answered.

Cronus cleared his throat. "Have Prince Endymion and Kunzite eliminated on arrival at the lab tomorrow. But today, prepare for the possibility of having to do a fast and complete teardown on everything. We don't know what safeguards he might have in place in the event of his death. Once that's over with, contact your allies back on Mars. Kasios can't possibly have told anyone at the agency about his investigation into me, so we need to handle him before he can find something real he can take to them. We need to arrange for a hit on the High King, as soon as possible."

Eudial, who had betrayed no emotion during the instructions being given to her, focused only on memorizing what was being dictated to her, couldn't stop herself from making a little verbal exclamation at this order. Just a little gasp and a jerk of the head.

"There's no other way," Cronus explained. "You said it yourself. If he finds a discrepancy in the power usage of our labs, the game is up. Clearly, he's completely convinced that he's right on this suspicion of his, or else he wouldn't be chasing it so doggedly. He has to be killed before he can pass something of value to the agency."

"No, no, I...I understand that," Eudial said breathlessly. "It's just shocking, hearing you say it."

"Now, obviously, the goal is to accomplish all of this without putting our operation in danger," Cronus continued, as if the matter of assassination the most powerful man in the galaxy was a trifle that warranted only a secunda of discussion. "I want to remain in my role as Cronus until the war is officially over. But, if we have to go on the run, then so be it. Just be prepared for anything. If we have proven one thing over the last decade, it's that we're highly adaptable, and that we're survivors."

"Yes sir," Eudial said. "I'll spread the word around as soon as we land."

"And I want to say, Eudial. Thank you for your years of service to me," Cronus continued, placing his hands on his kneecaps. "It hasn't been easy for any of us, I know that. But you, Tellu, Ptilol, you've never wavered in your loyalty to me, and have stayed with me every step of the way. Across multiples lives, really. All we've worked to accomplish, it could certainly not have been done without all of you."

Eudial cautiously measured her reply, careful to not say anything that might ruin the levity of the moment, something that had been in short supply recently. "There's nobody who I'd rather be working in the service of than you, sir. My work to see your goals achieved has been an honor."

"Once this is all over, we'll find some place to disappear for good. Whatever money we have left, we'll use it to make sure they never find us. Of course, it won't be as glamorous as you might remember back in the palace on Saturn, but there will be no more missions. No more jobs. Just freedom to finally relax. I think that sounds nice, don't you?"

Eudial squinted. "Do you think you'll ever be able to get over everything you lost?" she asked.

Cronus's eyes bulged, and his right hand instinctively rose up to wipe at his mouth as he considered the question.

"

Visitors to the Saturn Palace would sometimes say it felt like the royal house was in a permanent state of mourning. There was something inherently depressing and morose about the dull, dark colors that were used across virtually the entire massive estate, a mix of black and purple that just brought out the sadness.

When you lived in it all your life, of course, it didn't feel that way at all. The current presiding King of Saturn actually found other royal palaces across the galaxy to be gaudy and overly childish in their designs, sometimes to the point of hurting his eyes. He felt at home in the dark tones that painted the walls and ceiling. There was nothing sad about it to him.

However, there was a certain air of mourning around the middle-aged royal right now. Though he, personally, did not associate the inky, unlit environment with sadness, the mild irony was not lost on him.

King Saturn, a tall man with broad shoulders and short black hair, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, was leaning up against the side of a wooden crib, staring up towards the wall right on the other side of it. A small toddler was laying in the middle of the cradle, asleep, resting on her side with a pillow propped against her back. She had a mane of black hair to match his.

The King didn't turn to look when he heard the door on the other side of the room, at least forty paces from him, click open. He simply waited, counting what he imagined might be the muted footsteps of his aide might be taking.

"Is she alright, Your Highness?"

"As alright as she's ever been," King Saturn replied, a slight hint of bitterness in his tone. "I truly doubt she'll ever be alright, as the term is meant to be used."

His aide paused, no doubt fumbling a bit over his King's odd little expression of displeasure over his daughter's myriad of health conditions.

"How familiar are you with her ailments, Janus?" the King inquired.

"V-very," Janus replied, sounding a bit confused. "Of course I know all about them. It's part of my job, I've made—"

"Put my mind at ease, then," King Saturn asked. "Could you list them?"

"Um...weakened stomach acids causing digestive issues on certain food types, highly sensitive skin that dries out quickly, brittle bones and atrophied muscles, and aversion to light," Janus recited, rubbing his forehead. "Not the...technical terms, but...well, yes."

The King gave a tiny smile. "I suppose I'll trust the doctors to know the technical terms. I just wanted to make sure you were fully familiar with her conditions." He turned towards his aide. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you feel as if I think you're a child."

"Your Highness, I know it's frustrating, but she has access to the finest medical care in the galaxy. It will be little more than an annoyance, ultimately. I-Imagine if she was a middle-class commoner, with all of these health complications."

"Oh, I know, Janus," King Saturn said. "That's not even what frustrates me." He sighed, reaching down towards the baby and letting his finger gently stroke her hair. "What frustrates me is knowing that I'm not going to be the one who gets to guide her through all of it."

Janus wanted to offer his king some comfort, but knew it would be a waste of breath that would serve only to annoy him. He decided instead on considering more practical replies, focused on problem-solving.

"Royals have survived worse scandals, Your Majesty," Janus pointed out. "Let's just burn everything to the ground now, all the labs, all the...experiments, every bit of it. Just move on from it. We can bury it."

Slowly, the King stepped away from the crib. "It continues to confuse me. Society is perfectly willing to embrace certain kinds of progress. But not others. Some kinds of progress, they're repulsed by. And who can tell the difference until it's too late?"

"I couldn't agree more, Your Highness," Janus said, nodding firmly. "You're one of the finest scientific minds in the history of civilization. It's only being wasted by this backlash against your projects."

"How can that be so clear to people like you and me, and yet we're sitting here on the brink of having hundreds of millions of people storming the gates with pitchforks and torches?" King Saturn wondered aloud. "How can so much common sense be concentrated in a single room, while the entire rest of this planet just can't see it?" He shook his head. "Oh well. No sense in complaining about it now."

"We shouldn't give up, Your Highness," Janus reiterated, following his King around the room as he paced about. "This can be covered up. Human experimentation, real easy to make it go away. Destroy the documentation, destroy the facilities...frankly, most of the test subjects are already dead, so that's not a concern."

King Saturn shook his head. "It's too late. Too many people suspect it. A few hundred million people suspecting something makes it as good as true, they just have to keep talking about it. In a couple cycles, proof or not, it'll be accepted as fact. And I can't wait for that. The time to act is now, before they actually start trying to tear this place apart. Before they try to involve other planets in unseating me. I'm sure the line to help take the throne away from me will be long after my enemies tug on their heartstrings with stories of the 'horrible atrocities' of my work."

Janus winced, entire face rippling. "Your Highness, you should at least fight it."

"I will not spend the rest of my days inside a prison cell, Janus," the King explained. "Or allow self-righteous moral guardians to execute me. I have more things to do in this life. And I have no intention of laying down for anyone before I'm done with them." He turned around to look at his aide. "I've already decided. I'm disappearing tonight. I'll be taking some of our successful subjects with me to help establish myself wherever I end up. Control of the planet will pass to you primarily. You'll delegate responsibilities out to your colleagues. I trust you're prepared for that. Your goal will be to make sure that, when my daughter turns eighteen, she takes the throne as Queen."

Janus gave a barely audible hiss through gritted teeth. "Your Majesty. If you leave, that will just embolden your enemies to try to take control of the planet. It'll be viewed as a power vacuum."

"No one will feel any sympathy for me once everything comes to light," King Saturn pointed out, going back over towards the crib holding the young princess and looking down at his sleeping daughter. "All the galaxy will happily view me as a monster who must be removed from power at any cost." He nodded down at Princess Saturn. "But if I disappear, then people will see a frail little child, too young to understand anything happening around her in the palace, she will have defenders. People will see her as a victim of my crimes, same as some of my test subjects. Why should this sickly infant suffer for the acts of her monsterous father? That's what people will say. But only if I leave."

"Not everyone," Janus pointed out. "At the very least, there will be many opportunists who will move to take advantage of your departure. If we attempt to hold the throne for your daughter, there _will_ be a war. And not one we can be sure to win. I'm sure all the factions and groups that have opposed you for all these years will band together. And we won't be able to count on other planets to step in on our behalf, they'll be very hesitant to take sides in a conflict like this."

Eventually, King Saturn nodded. "You're right, of course. There will be a civil war. Every person on the planet with an axe to grind against me will just see it as a chance to take power."

"It won't be a war we're sure to win," Janus added. "At best, it'll be very costly."

The King audibly swallowed down hard, appreciating the gravity of the statement his top aide had just made. "I'll see to it that we do win, then."

"How?" Janus asked.

"Janus, you know me. You must know I have no intention of running away simply to hide. The universe needs my abilities, my brilliance. I'll find a way to leverage them in my next life. And I'll find a way to influence the war. Whatever it takes, she takes the throne when she turns eighteen. It'll be my final act as a father to her."

"How can you possibly influence a civil war involving this entire planet?" Janus asked. "N-not that I question your brilliance, of course, but..that would take hundreds of billions of creds."

"I have nothing else to live for but this, I'll find a way," King Saturn stated simply. "The throne is her birthright, she has nothing to do with my actions. Making sure that she gets what's coming to her is simply my duty as a father. Whatever it takes."

"I am sure I will not be able to change your mind," Janus said. "So I won't try anymore." He bowed his head a bit. "You will be missed, Your Highness. Saturn does not know, and may never know, how lucky they were to have you serving as King."

"I'll be gone by this time tomorrow," the King continued. "As far as the galaxy is concerned, I die tonight. When I'm reborn, however long it takes, you may recognize me. But nobody else will. So be sure to keep it to yourself." He gave a wan little smile at his aide.

"Of course. Truthfully, I doubt I'll be able to recognize you in whatever form you take next. I'm sure your ability to disguise yourself is as expert-level as everything else you do."

"Getting in one last session of brown-nosing before our relationship ends," King Saturn said wryly. "I suppose I respect it, but you must realize that after tonight, it won't be worth anything to you."

"I would never," Janus protested. "Well, Your Highness, I suppose all that can be said. I give you my word that I, as well as my colleagues, will do everything in our power to make sure that your daughter rules Saturn when she comes of age. However costly a civil war might be, it's a price we're all willing to pay."

"I know you will," the King affirmed. "Just keep the fight going, no matter how hopeless or endless it may look. If I have to pull Titan out of orbit to accomplish it, then so be it, but the kingdom stays in my family."

"I believe you," Janus said.

King Saturn stared down at his progeny, still blissfully aware of the extremely weighty conversation that was happening right next to her, asleep and too young to understand what was being discussed anyway. "You'll have to raise her to hate me, of course. It's the only way she'll garner sympathy."

"I'm sorry that it's come to this, Your Highness. No father should be deprived of the ability to raise their child."

"Oh, I'll still raise her," King Saturn countered. "When you're a father, you're always raising your children. Even if you're millions of haplouns away, using a different name, unrecognizable, despised and forgotten, blamed for all the misfortune in everyone's life. But you're still a father. And you still have the responsibilities of one."

"

"I don't feel as if I've lost as much as most people would probably think," Cronus said simply with a thin smile. "And the things I have lost were lost because of decisions I've made, that I stand by. I have lived as very few men in the history of the galaxy have. That's more important than what I may have lost on the way." He nodded. "Thank you, Eudial. Let's focus on what's ahead of us, not what's behind us."

Eudial quickly nodded, relieved that she hadn't crossed some line by bringing up the past. She was happy to end the conversation on that note, turning away, allowing both herself and Cronus to think about the immense challenge that the next several days would be.


	45. Final Resort

Chapter 45: Final Resort

"We're going to want to finish that today," Kunzite said, watching as Princess Venus twirled the mostly-empty glass bottle around in her fingers, the relatively-small amount of drink still within sloshing about at the bottom.

"You sure you'll be alright to drive home?" she asked sarcastically. "What's the rush?"

Kunzite swallowed down hard, the lump in his throat pushing downward. "Venus, um...well, there's no easy way to put this. Today will be our last meeting. At least, in this capacity."

Her playful smile disappeared quickly at that proclamation. "And I have no say in that? That doesn't seem in line with the arrangement that we had."

"It's out of my hands," Kunzite insisted. The two of them were rendezvousing in a random hotel room, as was their standard, this one in the wealthier half of Wagnenian City. The Princess was well-prepared, already changed into a lavender bathrobe and half-reclined back on the large four-poster bed. The curtains blocked most of the sunlight that otherwise would have easily illuminated the room, allowing the muted color scheme to thrive in giving the room a slightly ominous feel. "I'm afraid things have come to an end between the Prince and Cronus. This is the last shipment."

She tilted her head slightly, still frowning. Even though she probably weighed about as much as Kunzite's torso, didn't even come close to reaching his chin with the top of her head, and was wearing nothing but a thin robe, he was actually a little intimidated by her. In fact, he was even rather disappointed in himself, having to let her down like this and give her bad news. It didn't affect him as much as delivering unfavorable information to Prince Endymion, sure, but to care so much about how someone outside his immediate circle felt was something that Kunzite didn't expect would ever happen, and he didn't particularly like it.

"We've had this conversation before," Venus continued. "I told you, if the day came when you could no longer work with Cronus, we'd figure it out. I have needs, and they haven't been sated yet." She tilted her head. "I'm not just doing this to line my pockets."

"I think you misunderstand me," Kunzite countered, trying to remain confident under her harsh tone. "The end of our business relationship with Cronus is anything but amicable."

"What of it?" Venus asked. "Come on, enough with the evasive language, this affects me."

Kunzite hesitated, glancing around the darkened room.

"Kunzite," Venus said warningly.

"This is all, obviously, very, very secret. If what I'm about to say were to—"

"Oh come on!" Venus interrupted sharply. "I've kept your secrets this long! What do you think is going to change now?"

Kunzite winced. "Cronus is going to move to sever loose ends any day now. We can't afford to wait any longer. We're out of options, and my attempts to get to Cronus first have failed. So, we're going on the run. Until this situation is resolved, one way or another, the Prince has to go into hiding."

Venus bit her cheek. "On the run? The Crown Prince of Earth, on the run? How's that supposed to work?"

Kunzite finally relaxed a bit, his back curving ever so slightly as he felt the tension ease. He paced over towards the bottom left corner of the bed. "It's the only way. We're not the only loose ends. The High King is onto his double life and is very close to obtaining proof of it."

Venus made a little discouraged noise with her mouth, a sharp click with her tongue. "He's going on the run too, then? We're all in this together now?"

Kunzite cracked a tiny smile. "I actually wish it was that simple." He shook his head. "Venus, I don't want to pull you into this any more than I need to. The more you know, the more dangerous this becomes for you. And it's already going to be dangerous enough." He grimaced. "You're going to want to be safe for the next few days, by the way. Cronus certainly views you as a liability now. Stay in the palace, in secure locations. Don't think for a second you can hide somewhere that he can't find you."

Venus pursed her lips, visibly unhappy. "I don't do well with being confined to the palace."

"I know, but there's no other choice right now," Kunzite insisted, sitting down on the bottom corner of the bed, his weight enough to get Venus to shift a bit. "Just keep your head down and stay around people who can protect you at all times. Hopefully, it won't be long."

"What's the plan, here?" Venus asked. "Because the Crown Prince of Earth going on the run indefinitely and waiting for Cronus to die of old age or choke on a pretzel doesn't strike me as viable."

Kunzite absentmindedly started playing with his collar. "When this is over, only one of them will still be alive. That's all I can say."

"I'm just _dying_ to know how you plan on pulling all this off," Venus goaded. "How does this not end with the Prince in a prison cell anyway?"

"I harbor very few illusions of actually being able to pull this off," Kunzite admitted. "We have a plan. That plan actually working is something different entirely, but we still have to try following it."

Venus squinted, making a couple over-animated movements of her mouth as she digested what she was being told. "So. If I'm hearing you right, your expectation is that this ends with you and the Prince dead."

"Well, don't say it out loud. Makes it sound like I'm bad at my job," Kunzite grumbled. "Just...keep out of trouble until Cronus is gone."

Quickly, Venus scooted up the bed, towards the table right by the pillow. A couple of empty, clear shot glasses were standing up next to each other, just waiting to be filled. She uncorked the mouth of the largely-empty bottle and began pouring it out into the glasses.

"I'm not saying anyone is condemned to death right now. It's not over. But, we should be prepared for every possibility. And bottom line, Cronus has access to a nearly-infinite amount of resources. He's possibly the wealthiest man in the galaxy, and he's at the very top of the food chain in the criminal underworld to boot. Meanwhile, our resources are extremely limited, due to the heavy secrecy of Prince Endymion being involved in this operation."

"Come find me, after you get out of this," Venus said suddenly, getting to her feet and grabbing a full glass in each hand, taking them over towards Kunzite. "As soon as you possibly can. Once you handle this Cronus business, once he's no longer a threat to you, and after you bury this, you come meet with me, and we'll figure this out."

Kunzite sighed, reaching down to grab at one of the tiny glasses. "Venus, I—"

"I know you. I know your works. And I know that you're going to find a way to get to Cronus first, and then make all of this go away. It's what you were born to do, what you've trained your whole life to do. Someway, somehow, you'll figure this out. I just want to make sure you don't think our business is done after you do." She raised her glass up towards him a bit. "I'm not done with you yet. You or Endymion. You understand me?"

Kunzite sighed heavily, looking down at the small glass. "Very well. But I think you overestimate me."

"I guess we'll see," she said.

Satisfied that her point had been made, she silently tilted the glass back up against her lips. Kunzite copied her, trying to harvest some degree of comfort in how much confidence Princess Venus seemed to have in him.

"

Chibiusa set the round orange ball down on the carpet, large eyes trained on the small mechanical cat currently standing on all fours maybe fifteen paces away. It was a complicated piece of machinery, hundreds of little moving pieces coming together to simulate the movements of an actual domesticated feline. Chibiusa reached down and gave the orange ball a squeeze, and the cat sprung to life.

Quickly, with deliberate movements that quite clearly separated the robot from actual living, breathing creatures, the cat stalked over towards the ball, obeying it's programming and advancing on the simple toy.

Prince Endymion, sitting on the floor, watched her reactions as the cat closed in on her. She was thrilled by it, mouth opening in happy surprise as the robotic feline approached the ball. After several beats, it was close enough, and slowly crouched down. With a powerful push, it launched itself towards the ball, mimicking a pounce right on top of it. Chibiusa gave a loud squeal on watching the impact.

"See? Isn't that fun?" Endymion asked, happy that his daughter had an appreciation for the toy. She grabbed the ball, putting all her strength into pushing it over towards her father, rolling it into his leg. He leaned over to grab it, waiting for his daughter to prop the cat back up into a standing position. He squeezed the ball as soon as she did, and the toy dutifully began it's march.

The bedroom door opened just as Chibiusa began to follow the cat back towards the Prince. Endymion didn't even look up, instead keeping focus on his daughter, but eventually could not ignore the hulking figure that was now looming over him. Slowly, his head rotated around and tilted back, finding Kunzite towering up above.

"Where's Serenity?" he asked.

"Meeting with her contacts in Oberon Jewelers," Endymion answered. "She should be back in a minuta. No more than two." He smiled as Chibiusa again cheered the mechanical cat pouncing on the ball. "I actually got her, of all people, to be put in charge of overseeing finance for a large corporation. That's an accomplishment, right?"

"We're expected at the lab in a minuta and a half," Kunzite said, folding his arms across his chest. "If—"

"Hold on," Endymion interrupted, grabbing the orange ball and gently tossing it across the room. Chibiusa, as if she was taking cues from the toy cat, turned around and began crawling after it. As she chased the orb down, Endymion gathered his legs underneath him and stood up slowly.

"Alright," Endymion said, keeping his voice obviously hushed, an eye on Chibiusa. "You'd be amazed at how fast she's learning words, don't need her listening to this. Go ahead, be quick."

"If we leave now, we'll only be a little late. We can call ahead, let them know we're running behind. So it's not too late to change your mind, and do this another day."

Endymion smile faded, face clouding with conflict. "No. No, we...today's the day. It has to be. We can't wait any longer."

"I just wanted you to know that this is the point of no return," Kunzite explained. "But if we're not going to leave for the lab now, then I need to have Nephrite make the calls. Obviously, at that point, there's no turning back."

"Good," Endymion said, voice getting a little weaker. He nodded, turning to look at his daughter as she struggled to get to her feet, deciding she'd rather pursue the ball bipedally. "It's probably the only way I'll be able to actually go through with this."

Chibiusa closed the final short distance between her and the orange ball with a waddling series of steps, coming down on it hard with her palm as she fell down on her behind next to it. The cat, once again, sprung to life and began to patrol over towards the toddler.

"Make the call as soon as Serenity gets back," Endymion said throatily. "I'll explain it to her. Somehow, I'll get through it."

Kunzite nodded. "Be ready to leave, then. Everything is going to have to be slotted into narrow windows if we're going to make this work."

Endymion re-trained his focus back on his daughter, who was once again reacting quite colorfully to the sight of the robotic cat leaping on top of the ball.

"Hey, Kunzite," Endymion rasped. "What if, instead of a ball, it was a toy mouse?"

"Huh?" Kunzite looked over at the royal toddler. "W-what?"

"No, I mean...cats chase mice, right? Cats pounce on mice? That'd make more sense, if it was a mouse. I don't even know, do...do cats pounce on balls? You wouldn't think so. But a mouse, they'd definitely pounce on a mouse. We should get something like that made."

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?" Kunzite asked. "We really don't have to do this today, if you're not feeling up to it."

"No, no, trust me, don't try to give me a choice, or we'll never do this." Endymion gave his head a vigorous shake. "Just...go do what you have to do. I'll be ready."

"

"Understood, sir." The blond-haired man slapped his finger down on the center of the communicator disc, then immediately grabbed a screwdriver on the table next to him and began prying the shell open. A series of little wires and glowing-blue pebbles inside were quickly discombobulated by the metallic tool, stabbed haphazardly in dozens of places to render it completely unusable. "We've gotten the affirmative."

"Oh, Gods." A much shorter man with long brown hair swung around the corner of the hallway, poking his head out into the main room of the small apartment, as if he was afraid of what he might find in the sparsely-equipped, cheap room. "Whatever they're paying us to do this, it can't possibly be enough."

"It _is_ enough. Trust me, Vitus, twenty thousand creds for a call that should last less than two secundas. That's more than enough." Satisfied with the state of the broken communicator after snapping several more of the delicate circuitry within, he swept the pieces up into a cloth handkerchief and folded it up.

"You can't honestly think it's the _duration_ of the call that's the problem here," Vitus growled. "Come on, Alexandros, do you have any idea what happens if anyone ever finds out about this? We'll never see the sun again."

"Nobody is going to find out we did this," Alexandros countered simply. "How could they? Unless we tell somebody, which we won't. Come on, if we're not the ones who do this, Nephrite will just get someone else to do it and we'll be spending the rest of our lives thinking about what we WOULD have done with that twenty grand."

"If they have the slightest inkling of a suspicion that we did this, we're going to have law enforcement surgically attached to our hip for the rest of our lives, best case scenario. Don't tell me it's just a call, you're smarter than that." Vitus, nevertheless, marched over to a cabinet against the wall right by the hallway entrance and ripped it open. "Alright, just...be ready to destroy this thing as soon as I hang up. I want to be on the first shuttle out of this city as soon as humanly possible."

"Calm down, everything's going to be fine." Alexandros grabbed a cardboard tube off the table next to him and tossed it across the room, Vitus managing to catch it in his right hand. His left hand was quickly spinning the dials around the edge of the communicator he had just pulled out of the cabinet drawer. "Think it through logically, it's almost impossible for us to get caught."

"Almost," Vitus agreed. "But the consequences for getting caught are astronomical, so excuse me for being concerned." With a deep breath, he put one end of the tube up to his mouth and pointed the other at the communicator disc. "Alright, here we go. Give me a signal if I'm going too long."

He pressed the center button on the disc, and a connection was patched through. He waited several seconds as the holographic soundwave trilled a gentle tune. And then, with a click that made Vitus's gut clench, he was connected.

"Capitol City Services, how may I direct your call?"

Vitus cleared his throat, then began speaking through the tube, distorting his voice. "King Kasios is in danger! Secure him immediately!"

"...I'm sorry, sir?"

Vitus grimaced, almost feeling silly, but quickly plowed on through the script he had written in his mind. "King Kasios is being targeted by the Atlantic Independent Federation, they have a mole in the palace!"

"...sir, what are you talking about? What are you saying?"

"I'm a member of the Federation, they've gone too far! I'm calling as a warning, the attempt on the High King's life will be made in the next few days! I can't just sit by while my colleagues cross the line like this!"

"Who is this? Where are you?"

"I'm not going to tell you where I am, I'm a member of the Atlantic Independent Federation! This is an anonymous tip!" With that, Vitus slammed his thumb down on the center button, cutting the call off. Quickly, he tossed the device over to Alexandros, who immediately started prying the case off to expose the delicate insides. He also dropped the tube to the floor.

"Destroy that thing fast," Vitus said. "The sooner we're far away from here, the better."

"You think they'll take it seriously?" Alexandros asked.

"Maybe not yet," Vitus said, running over to the room's sole window to the outside and pulling the curtain back to peek out. "But they're about to get flooded with too many calls to _not_ take seriously."

"

"If you're not sure, then pack it," Kunzite said firmly as a half-dozen tin cans floated right in front of him before landing in a large black luggage container, nestling right up next to a trio of long rectangular cases. "What we're packing is all we're going to have."

Jadeite, standing a few steps inside the opened storage room, constantly spinning around to look at the contents of the various shelves, was quickly escorting most of the stored items out to the large box. Pushing his psychic abilities close to their limits, Jadeite was able to move around dozens of different objects at once using only his mind.

"Get plenty of the Kittle Clay," Kunzite reminded his younger counterpart. "I have a feeling that whatever we end up coming up with, it'll involve some explosions."

Jadeite did not verbally reply, too focused on the task of leveraging his abilities to quickly load up the container, but did indeed add several large brown bundles to the collection of items he was withdrawing.

"What kind of missions are we going to be conducting here?" Nephrite asked, coming up from behind Kunzite, getting the eldest Earth general to spin around. Nephrite had a container identical to the one in front of Kunzite right behind him, this one sealed up and hovering just a touch above the ground. "It would really help if we had some idea of what we might end up doing once we're out there."

"There's no way of knowing," Kunzite said simply, rounding Nephrite and crouching down towards his luggage receptacle and popping the lid open. "We have to be prepared for every possibility. And we have to assume that whatever we end up needing to do, we'll only be able to use what we load onto the ship."

Nephrite's case was half loaded with bundled stacks of paper money, enough to account for several million creds worth, and the other half consisted of large piles of assorted gemstones. Satisfied, Kunzite locked the case up again.

"Stealth, sabotage, all-out war, infiltration, negotiation...it could be anything. We're not hard-pressed for storage space, so don't be shy about taking anything with you."

"I give us less than a minuta before the alarms start getting raised, by the way," Nephrite added, glancing over at Jadeite.

"We're on schedule," Kunzite grunted. "Zoisite's down in the garage hooking _The Bastion_ with the remote controls. We'll be out of here in time."

"Ugh!" Jadeite grunted, a final few packs of adhesive bandages falling into place inside the container, finally filling it to capacity. "Alright, I think that's everything."

Kunzite kneeled down to close up the filled container. "Let's lock this place up good before we leave," he added. "Last thing we need is someone looking in here and wondering why our armory is so sparse." With a push of his palm against the side of the box, the lid was locked down.

"

The high degree of tension in the room was weighing down on both Tellu and Ptilol, each of them standing on either side of where Cronus was seated. The interior of Cronus's most recent personal craft carried only superficial and largely irrelevant differences from the previous ones, both of the young women finding the recent cycles a blur in terms of which ship Cronus was using at any given time. He took every opportunity to switch to a new one, taking every imaginable precaution against potential attempts on his life by the Prince.

Cronus was seated at a small makeshift desk, just a simple end table in front of a plain stool, staring down at an active communicator disc right in front of him. A very quiet throat-clearing signalled that there was a person on the other side of the call, just enough to get the holographic soundwave to vibrate.

Tellu and Ptilol exchanged a glance above Cronus's head.

"Nothing."

Eudial's voice was distinctive enough to be clearly identified over the crystal-clear connection, despite the great distance between the two communicators, and tremendous speed at which the ship was moving at.

"The Prince and Kunzite are now a full minuta late. They've never been nearly this late before and they always call ahead when they are," Eudial continued.

Cronus couldn't stop himself from a physical outburst of frustration, slamming his right palm down on the desk, scowling deeply.

"H-how could they possibly have known?" Ptilol mumbled, as much to herself as anything else.

"They didn't," Cronus hissed, getting to his feet. "We lost the game of chicken. Obviously, they knew this was coming, they've simply guessed well."

"Now what?" Tellu asked hurriedly, eager to get her boss to start thinking about potential solutions to this problem instead of the problem itself. He had already proven himself capable of offing an underling in a moment of anger and disappointment.

"We have to be prepared for anything," Cronus said quickly. "I seriously doubt that he'll try to turn me in to his father or the agency, but we should go into full-time off the grid mode just in case. And we need to keep on the move, I'm sure the Prince at least has a plan to try to get me, he can't believe that all this just goes away if he stops showing up to the lab." He bent down over the communicator. "Eudial, invest all resources into assassination attempts on High King Kasios and Prince Endymion. They're the ones who are capable of ruining everything for us if they're left alive long enough. Get to them as soon as possible, once they're gone things can go back to normal for us."

"Yes, boss," Eudial replied. "What about the lab?"

"Leave it," Cronus ordered. "I want to leave open the possibility that this ends with us in possession of Endymion's raw supply after we kill him. And remember, take every precaution. Obviously, we are infinitely better-equipped to survive this war than the Prince, but that does not make us invincible."

"Understood, boss," Eudial said.

As the communicator switched off as the connection ended, Cronus again frowned.

"We were just a couple days too late," he muttered. "I give that order two days earlier and there's nothing to be concerned about."

"Boss, will you be wanting us to work with Eudial on the assassinations?" Ptilol asked.

Cronus shook his head. "No, I...I need additional security around me right now. The Prince is desperate now, he and his generals will be throwing everything they have at me. I need...I need you two watching my back at all times. Helping me look at things from different angles. It's the only way to guarantee survival."

"Got it," Tellu said quickly. "The Prince won't be getting anywhere near you, whatever we have to do to guarantee that."

"

Endymion leaned up against the ornate, white wall of the palace hallway, right next to his bedroom door, face warring between multiple expressions. Ones of sadness, anger, despair, frustration...you name a negative emotion, and Endymion was trying to display it. His hands went up to cover his face, and he slowly pushed his long fingers through his thick black hair, inhaling and exhaling slowly to try to settle himself physically.

Somehow, this seemed like the hardest part of it all. He was about to embark on a million-to-one mission of trying to kill a man who was both the most successful business C.E.O. and the most powerful criminal Kingpin in the galaxy, with nothing more than four skilled assistants and a B-class ship luggage compartment worth of equipment, but that seemed almost easy compared to this.

And that was just for him. He could only imagine what he was about to put his wife through in the next seven or eight secundas, and how she would force herself to simply deal with it since she would have no other choice. If he could even convince her that she had no other choice, of course, which was no guarantee.

After doing this, he thought to himself, killing Cronus and burying his participation in his business might even seem easy in comparison.

Conscious of someone possibly seeing him in the hallway and raising more questions, he steeled himself, then spun around and ripped the bedroom door open. It almost physically hurt for him to see Serenity, leaning over the crib and observing Chibiusa's sleeping form. He almost hoped that she might suddenly cease to exist and there would be no need for him to explain himself.

"Sweetie?" Endymion said, shutting the door securely behind him and locking it. The blonde Princess turned towards him, an eased smile on her face that wasn't going to be around much longer. "We need to talk."

"Something wrong?" she asked, taking a few steps away from the crib. Endymion gestured for her to keep coming towards him, desiring to keep this discussion far away from their child.

"Um...well, yes," he admitted. That was enough to knock the smile off her face. "Just, just come here. I need to listen to me, very carefully. I won't be able to repeat myself, and we won't get another chance."

Serenity, now starting to pick up on the seriousness of the situation, crossed the room as quick as she could. "W-what's that supposed to mean?"

"Um...okay, Serenity. Any moment now, maybe in a minuta, there's going to be an palace-wide alarm raised, and the palace guard is going to be collecting everyone. They're going to...they're going to say that they have reason to believe that my dad has been targeted for an assassination by the Atlantic Independent...F-federation."

Serenity somehow managed to look even more mystified, shoulders drooping as she was halfway convinced that her husband was going mad.

"They're an organization, they opposed my father's rule, committed some terrorist attacks three years ago in the eastern hemisphere. S-so, they're going to escort everyone down into the bunker. It's safe down there, nobody can get in there, you can stay down there for a year if need be, it's...it's safe. You, Chibiusa, your mother, you'll all be moved down there."

"W...I...Endy, where do I even start?!" Serenity asked. "Um, well...you'll be down there too, of course, right?"

"No, no, I'm...Serenity, I'm leaving," Endymion said, starting to waver and falter, the conversation breaking him down. It was somehow harder, him having to verbalize his plan, instead of simply thinking about it. "I'm leaving with my generals, and...I don't know when I'm going to be back."

"What?!" Serenity gasped. "W-why would you...and...how do you know about any of this anyway? Endy, this doesn't make any sense!"

"Wait, wait!" Endymion begged. "Just let me finish. Serenity, the...the assassination attempt isn't coming from the Atlantic Independent Federation, it's...it's a false flag. I had a series of fake tips called in warning about it."

Serenity only didn't interrupt because she was too much in shock to manage a response, her mouth dropping open as far as it could.

"W-well, no, there...there IS an assassination attempt. There WILL be. But, it's…" he swallowed down hard. "The man I've been working with. Cronus. He's going to try to kill him. I don't know how he'll do it, but he's out to kill all of us."

"...what?" Serenity said. "Endymion, you said—"

"I know! I know, I...I know what I said!" Endymion said, voice wavering with emotion. At the very least, there wouldn't be enough time for her to get mad at him right now, but this confession was very difficult for him. "I know what I said, and...what I said was true at the time, but...things have changed. Things changed, and I've done everything I could to try to handle it before it got out of control, but...the truth is, Serenity, I've been living under the threat of death for the last several cycles. And time's run out. Cronus means to kill me, my dad, and...anyone else who he thinks could pose a threat to him or expose him."

"Several cycles?" Serenity repeated. "Endymion, you told me that everything was safe! You told me that there wasn't any danger!"

"I did, I did, I...I was afraid to say it!" Endymion admitted, putting his hands up in front of him in a slightly defensive pose. "I'm sorry, I should have...I've been lying to myself for awhile now. I believed that I could fix this, that I could make it go away before it involved anyone else, but...he's coming now. And I'm sorry. I should never have let it go this far, I should have...I should have done so many things differently. But...all I can do now is make sure that everyone else is safe. So just go down into the bunker when the guards come to collect you. And stay down there, it'll be safe. C-Cronus might be powerful, but he won't be able to get in there."

"W...well, if...you should be down there too, then!" Serenity said, tears forming in her eyes.

The selfish part of Endymion was relieved that she hadn't swung right into berating him for lying about his work. He didn't have the time nor the mental fortitude to deal with that right now, even if it was only for a second.

"No, no, I can't be down there," Endymion said, shaking his head and glancing away from his wife.

"You said he's coming to kill you!" Serenity shouted. "You...if he's coming to kill you, then you need to be protected as well! Why wouldn't you be down in the bunker as well!"

"Serenity, you...this man, he will stop at _nothing_ to kill me. If I go down into that bunker, I may as well stay down there for the rest of my life. The moment I stick my head out of the palace, my life will be in danger. This only ends with Cronus dead and buried, the _only_ chance I have is going out there to end this."

"W...wait, no! You're a father! Endymion, you have a young daughter, you're...you're the lone heir to the Earth Kingdom, you can't just—"

"Serenity," Endymion interrupted, feeling precious time ticking off, knowing he had to resolve this quickly. "Serenity, listen. I'm sorry, I know...I'm asking you to accept a lot in a very short time, I know this isn't fun to listen to, but...I have made choices over this last year. And it has to be me who faces the consequences of those choices. Not you, not our daughter, not my father or your mother, me. So, I'm going to go out there, and I'm going to fight like hell to survive, I'm going to do everything I can to...to come back, but the reality is, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen out there, and I don't know how it's going to end. The only thing that matters now, the only thing that I care about, is that I'm far away from you and our daughter if the worst happens. I have to face the consequences, nobody else."

Serenity blinked rapidly, clearly starting to panic as her husband all but admitted that he was likely heading off to his death. "W-well, no! You, we...we can tell your father! We can tell him the truth, he can take your testimony to the agency, Cronus won't be able to hurt you from prison! I've said before—"

"No, no, it doesn't matter now!" Endymion said. "It's too late, he already knows!"

Serenity's face scrunched up. "W-what do you mean he knows?!" She just barely managed to keep her voice low enough to avoid waking up Chibiusa. "No he doesn't, if he knew—"

"He knows about Cronus, he...he's figured it out somehow, he just can't prove it!" Endymion grimaced. "And Cronus has already gone dark by now, telling my father won't help anything! The only thing he doesn't know is about my involvement! No, this...it's the only way. I'm sorry that it's come to this, and I'm sorry to put all this on you like this, but this is the only way this plays out. I can't have...I won't have assassins coming here to kill me in my sleep with you lying next to me!"

Serenity's eyes downcast slightly towards the carpeted floor.

"Serenity, really, I'm sorry, it's not fair. But this is the only thing to do now. If I tell my father everything, the only thing that changes is that he'll know about me. As far as he knows, I'll be running around Earth putting the final touches on paying off the people who invested in the deep space program and making diplomatic visits to prepare for taking the throne. If it comes up, that's the story. Okay?"

Serenity sighed, wearing a pained expression. "I-it's the only way? You're sure?" A few tears leaked down her cheeks now.

"I...this is it." Endymion swung his arms out to his sides. "This is all I can do to keep the people I care about safe. If the worst happens, then it needs to happen on the other side of the galaxy, while you're in the most secure location in the universe."

"If...if the worst happens," Serenity repeated under her breath. "It...it almost sounds like you're expecting for this to end with you dead, how can I just be okay with that?! The way you're talking it's like...as if this is the last time we'll ever talk!"

"Serenity, I'm done lying to you. I'm just...I have to be honest right now. It really might be my last chance to be honest. Cronus, he's...the things he's done, the resources he has, what he's capable of, I don't know what's going to happen. And I, I promise, I'm going to fight like hell to stay alive out there, but the truth is...I don't know if I'm coming back. I really don't. But whatever happens, I just want to know that you'll be safe."

Serenity closed her eyes, a couple more tears leaking out of the inside corners of them. Finally, she nodded. "Okay, I...come back. Please, just...find a way to come back, I don't...just, come back."

"I'll do everything that I can," Endymion said, stepping in towards her and grabbing her head in both hands, pulling her in to kiss her on the forehead. "But just know, I love you. And whatever mistakes I've made, and I'm sure there are too many to count, just know, it was always you in my heart."

Serenity wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Okay, okay. I won't tell your father anything, just...be careful out there."

"If it goes badly, tell him everything, he'll...he'll understand the gravity of the threat if he knows it's coming from Cronus. But until then, say nothing, he's safe as long as he's down in the bunker." He pulled away from her. "I have to go now, the alarm will be raised very soon, I need to be out by then."

"Hey," Serenity said as Endymion started backing up towards the glass balcony doors. "Endy, we'll...we'll have to have a real talk about this after it's over, but...stay alive, okay? Make it back. Please."

Endymion hesitated, feeling the urge once again to drop everything, wait to be escorted down into the bunker, and hope things would work out another way. Perhaps Cronus would drop dead of some deadly disease or trip and hit his head on a staircase. For the briefest of moments, hoping for something like that seemed more appetizing than leaving his family to embark on what felt like a suicide mission. But then, it was gone, and the reality of the situation forced him to simply nod and then turn around, breaking into a run towards the balcony.

"

"Are you sure she understands?" Kunzite asked, staring right at Endymion as the two young men quickly took the handful of steps up the ramp into Endymion's personal ship. The sound of their boots clacking at the metal surface got Endymion's other three generals, already seated up close to the cockpit, to turn around and look.

"Kunzite, I just told her that an extremely powerful man is trying to kill all of us and that I'm going to try to stop him at great risk to myself, there's...I'm sure she _understands_ , but of course she absolutely hates it!" Endymion grunted, quickly pushing through the rows of chairs to make his way up to the control console at the front of the ship.

"I know, Your Highness, but the important part is that she keeps quiet. Even if this works, even if we somehow survive the next few days, it will all mean very little if she lets something slip to your father," Kunzite replied, sliding into one of the empty seats behind Nephrite.

"She said she'd keep quiet, that's the best I can do," Endymion said. "I don't doubt she's emotional and could potentially do something she immediately regrets, but...we've done all we can." With a couple of frantic button presses on the center console, the ramp behind them swung up and the ship was closed.

"We've rigged this ship up so we can control it remotely," Kunzite explained. "We've set up a second ship a hundred haplouns to the south, so we'll go there first and make the switch. As far as the palace will be concerned, we'll all be in here, going around, conducting some final touches before the transfer of power." Kunzite explained, glancing over towards Zoisite behind him, as he nodded to confirm the remote controls had been successfully set up.

Everyone waited for Endymion to power the ship up and engage the engines, but his hands had stopped, resting on the edges of the console. For several beats, the cabin of the ship was silent, only the urgency of the situation getting Jadeite to prod the Prince out of his momentary stupor.

"Your Highness? The alarm will go up in a matter of secundas," Jadeite reminded him.

"It'll be safe down in that bunker," Endymion said, eyes straight forward, looking out the front window of the ship. "If any of you would rather wait this out down there, now's the time to say."

More silence. None of his four generals stirred or made a sound.

"I wouldn't judge any of you too harshly for it. Nothing good is waiting out there for us."

Again, he waited, giving all of them every opportunity to back out at the final moment. You could have heard a pin drop in the cabin.

"Alright, then," he finally declared, reaching forward to tap the console awake, the muted roar of the engines coming to life finally breaking the tension as he guided the ship out of the docking port.


	46. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Chapter 46: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

A/N: Happy New Year to everyone, thank you for getting me to 11,000 views, and thank you for bearing with me as my personal life has been rather messy and I've had less time for writing than I want.

"

The landscape below flashing by rapidly underneath _The Bastion_ as it zipped through the air just underneath the clouds, the five young men were deathly silent within the cabin of the luxury ship. In truth, there were probably about a thousand things they should have been discussing, with so many things to balance out over the next day, but it was hard to know where to even begin.

For the moment, the task was simple. Switch ships. That part would be easy. Everything after that? It seemed such a monumental task that even talking about it was intimidating.

Endymion's right hip vibrated, drawing his attention away from piloting the ship. Absentmindedly flipping on the auto-pilot, he stood up and withdrew his communicator disc from his pocket.

"It has to be them," Endymion said quickly. "I'll handle this." He spun away from the center console and took a few steps back towards the center of the cabin. Kunzite quickly swung up from his co-pilot chair and went to the primary console. Endymion, mouth clenching, tapped the center button on the communicator.

"Hello? Prince Endymion speaking," he began, trying his very best to sound casual.

"Your Highness, we have a threat level nine in effect, you're outside the palace right now?"

Kunzite felt his own communicator start to vibrate on his hip as he pushed the ship forward through the air, but ignored it. Doubtlessly, the palace guard was contacting him about getting the Prince back to safety.

"Y-yes, I'm with my generals, we're out conducting some important business," Endymion answered, trying to remember how people sounded when they were at ease and comfortable, and then emulate it the best he could. "Threat level nine, w-what's going on?"

"We have reason to believe that an assassination attempt is going to be made on High King Kasios," the voice replied.

"W-what?!" Endymion gasped. "What makes you think that?!"

"We've received several anonymous tips. Too many to ignore. Your Majesty, please, return to the palace immediately. You're not safe out there."

"Oh, wow," Endymion said. "A-anonymous tips?"

"Yes, Your Highness. How soon can you be back?"

"Uhhh…" Endymion looked over his shoulder, glancing up at his four generals gathered up close to the control console, Kunzite at the helm. "Y-y'know, I'm actually pretty busy right now, I'm doing some fairly important things, time sensitive."

"Whatever it is, Your Majesty, I'm sure it can wait. Please, return to the palace."

"Um, these...these tips, just...just out of curiosity, what can you tell me about them? Where does this information come from? Who would want to kill my father?" Endymion asked, trying to sound genuinely curious.

"The, uh, Atlantic Independent Federation," he answered, starting to sound a little frantic. "They're going to make an attempt on High King Kasios's life, and we can only assume they'll consider people like you secondary or consolation targets, possibly bait for the High King."

"Oh, uh, the A-I-F?" Endymion said. "That...that, no chance. Come on, uh...those guys didn't even do assassinations when they were at their peak! N-not even five years ago, they wouldn't have even considered taking a shot at the High King, now they're...no, um, you know what?" Endymion cleared his throat. "I-I think I'll pass."

"Your Highness, please! Even if there's just a tiny chance, it's too big of a risk to take! You never know what people and organizations are capable of, just come in!"

"Um, hey, I...I appreciate you trying to do your job, I know that you've got your orders, but I'm currently in the middle of some very important things that I can't just postpone. The Atlantic Independent Federation doesn't have enough power right now to assassinate a three-star academy education director, much less the High King, I know enough to know that much. I have my generals with me, they'll be more than adequate to protect me if anything happens."

"Your Majesty, I have strict orders to bring you into the palace, please, this needs to be your highest priority!"

"And I respect that you feel that way, but...look, think about it like this. If I allow something as obviously fradulent as this assassination threat to put a stop to my duties as Crown Prince of Earth, that's...it's like, it's letting the terrorists win. We need to...I think we need to be showing that we're not going to be intimidated by these pranks." Endymion leaned his body up against the side wall of the ship. "I'm not coming, I'm not coming back to the palace, sorry, I've made up my mind. If, if I know my father, he wouldn't be willing to put something important on hold for a vague threat like this either, so...I'm not doing it."

"Um...well, w-what should I tell your father, Your Highness?"

"Uh, the truth," Endymion said, as casually as he could. "I'm sure he'll understand. T-tell him that I'm putting the finishing touches on my project and it's time-sensitive." Not wanting to reopen the conversation, he quickly killed the connection, lowering the disc to his side.

"How confident are you that your father is going to accept this from you?" Jadeite asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"I'm extremely confident that we don't have a choice but to hope he does," Endymion said, sinking down towards the floor until he was sitting on it, pulling his knees up close to his chest. "I'm far more concerned about...everything else, right now."

"My network is listening, they've all got their ears to the ground," Nephrite said. "Cronus isn't a ghost, he's a man. He's got to be somewhere."

Zoisite barely managed to fight off a scoff. "Your network is based entirely on Earth. They have no reach beyond the planet, and Cronus isn't nearly stupid enough to come anywhere near here. If he's smart, he won't go inside the belt. And even given that he is...somewhere, it would take us ten thousand years to find him even if he decided to stop moving."

"Well, there's that," Nephrite grunted, not happy to hear his network of spies be belittled.

"We're all owed favors and we all have friends," Kunzite reasoned. "Someone, somewhere will be able to give us something to work with."

Endymion pressed his forehead up against his knees, sighing.

"

"Hey, I guess we're finally using the bunker for something," Kasios said loudly, scowling as he stepped through the massive steel double doors, flanked on both sides by palace guards in their traditional red and purple uniforms. "So we've got that going for us."

The bunker was a sizable chamber with several connecting rooms, two stories below ground level. While still decorated with a light purple color scheme and assorted paintings, the bunker's primary feature was security. Equipped with a closed-off ventilation system that could not be interfered with from the outside and enough food to last ten people a year, there was hardly a safer place in all the galaxy. Surrounded on all sides by steel and concrete, all ways in and out locked down beyond all reasonable hope of getting inside without permission, any assassination attempt on a resident of the palace went from improbable to impossible once they were moved inside.

All three generations of living Serenitys were waiting in the main room already, the eldest standing just a few steps away from the main entrance that Kasios had just entered through. She immediately approached the High King.

"Are you alright?!" she asked, looking a little panicked.

"Yes, yes, of course I'm fine," he said, clearly agitated.

The middle Serenity was seated on one of the couches in the central area of the main room of the bunker, turned away from the King and Queen, absentmindedly holding Chibiusa in her lap. She didn't even want to risk looking at anyone else right now, as if she was afraid the look on her face or something in her eyes might give away the fact that she knew far more than she was supposed to know.

"I...we're not used to things like this," Queen Serenity said. "I've never had something like this happen on the Moon. Being targeted by assassins."

"Well, there's not much to it," he said dismissively, looking around the room. Behind him, a half dozen more palace guards flooded into the room, the massive steel doors behind them closing heavily.

"Wait, wait!" Queen Serenity interjected, waving her arms towards the slowly closing doors. "Where's Endymion?! Don't close up! He's not here yet!" The giant doors creaked to a halt halfway through the closing process.

"Oh yeah?" Kasios asked, looking around the room. "You're sure?"

"He's not here, I checked every room when we got down here!" Queen Serenity said, sounding almost as if she was able to break down into a panic. The contrast with the benignly-annoyed High King was almost comical. "U-unless he's hiding—"

"Ah." One of the recently-entered palace guards, a shorter blond one, stepped forward. "Your Highness, Prince Endymion will not be coming."

"What?!" Queen Serenity snapped. The Princess continued to purposefully keep her back to the conversation, making as if she was preoccupied with entertaining Chibiusa.

For the first time, Kasios sounded concerned about something. "What, you were just saving that for a dramatic moment? What do you mean?!"

The blond guard winced. "We...we contacted him, Your Highness, and he...he didn't seem to take the threat seriously. He said he was busy and wouldn't be coming in."

Princess Serenity squeezed a small wad of fabric on Chibiusa's outfit into a tiny ball between her fingers, nervously gritting her teeth together.

"Oh." Kasios immediately relaxed his tone and his stance. "Okay." He waved his right arm up towards the doors. "Close it up!" Just as quickly as they had come to a halt, the two massive slabs of steel began to come together again, closing in on meeting in the middle of the threshold.

"Okay?!" Queen Serenity gasped. "What do you mean, okay?! Not okay, don't close up!" She turned towards the doors, waving her arms back and forth in front of him. "Hold on, not yet!"

They did indeed stop moving, just a few finger lengths shy of actually touching each other, allowing Queen Serenity to voice her protests without the high-decibel rumble of them pushing together.

"Kasios, there's an assassin out there! Maybe multiple assassins! You don't think they'll use him to get to you if he's out there and you're holed up in here?!" Queen Serenity shrieked. "The bunker only works if everyone is inside it!"

Kasios grunted. "Serenity, sweetie, let me help you out here. This...this concern you have, it's a waste. There's no assassin. Much less assassins."

Princess Serenity was happy that she was turned away from the elders and their conversation, because she very visibly blanched at that statement. She fought to not audibly react to it. As much as she hated holding this secret inside while everyone around her was being so affected by a lie, she knew things would be far worse if the truth were uncovered.

"W-what do you mean? You heard the palace guard, there's...anonymous tips!" Queen Serenity continued to argue, not at all comforted by Kasios's bold claim.

"Anonymous tips," Kasios repeated. "There's a reason why they're anonymous, Serenity. A reason why they make sure the calls can't be traced. They don't want it to get back to them when it all ends up being a big practical joke. Which is exactly what this is."

Princess Serenity twisted her body around to look, unable to resist anymore.

"H-how can you know that?! Kasios, please, I think we should take this seriously! It's not as if this happens every cycle, I...has this _ever_ happened to you before?! Because this is all new to me!"

"That's not the issue here," Kasios replied, casually waving his arm towards the doors. "Close it up!" As the steel slabs shuddered closed, he quickly stalked towards the center of the room where the seating was arranged. "The Atlantic Independent Federation, give me a break. Never, never! Not even when they had clout would they have considered coming after me, certainly not now! If law enforcement had any common sense, they'd just hang up the moment they mentioned the A-I-F. They probably have their meetings in treehouses now. Probably don't have the courage to steal the coins out of a public communicator station anymore." Kasios practically fell backwards into a chaise, as if he was taking his annoyance out on the furniture by throwing his weight onto it.

"Maybe they're desperate!" the Moon Queen suggested. "Feel like they're losing their grip on whatever little influence they had and...they've deluded themselves into thinking something like this is what they HAVE to do! It doesn't seem impossible!"

"Mm," Kasios rumbled. "No, they're...I'm sure they're just laughing their asses off that they actually managed to do enough to get everyone panicking and me down here. Frankly, Endymion's the lucky one here, being out on business while all this nonsense happens. I'm jealous, really." He shook his head. "I would have refused to come down here as well, but it's either this or have the palace guard in my ear all day _insisting_ it. And it's not like I'm doing anything so important that I can't kill some time down here, so I'll humor it." The High King gave a general gesture over towards one of the palace guards, as the purple-uniformed men began to spread out across the room. "Not the worst thing in the world for these guys to feel useful every now and then. But Endymion's busy with important work, I don't blame him at all for making it his priority."

Queen Serenity gaped, then twisted her head over towards her daughter, who had quickly gone back to pretending as if she wasn't all that interested in the current argument. "D-don't you want him here?! Aren't you concerned?!"

The Princess swallowed hard, trying to figure out how to answer in a way that was both disarming and unsuspicious. Under the weight of all the sudden revelations that Endymion had just heaped into her lap, she had basically no time to even consider the role she was now being forced to play in all this. She was entirely unprepared for this balancing act.

"He's...he's got his generals with him," she said quietly, stroking Chibiusa's back as the small girl sat in her lap. "I think it'll be alright."

"Wh...Serenity!" the Queen put her hands on her hips. "If there's even a _tiny_ chance that these tips are based in reality, then...it's not worth the risk! Whatever Endymion's busy with, it can't possibly be so important that he needs to put himself in danger!"

"He's not in danger, Serenity," Kasios said, leaning back on the chaise. "None of us are. And Endymion is in the middle of some very important business, he shouldn't be forced to postpone it on account of some prank call." He pointed over towards the younger Serenity. "He's about to become High King of Earth, you know that, don't you?"

"Y-yes, I remember the conversation we had," Princess Serenity muttered, standing up with Chibiusa in tow.

"And I mean in a matter of days." Kasios propped his right elbow against the pillow and rested his head on his right hand. "He's been working unbelievably hard on getting us out of this bad situation the last several cycles, the stuff he's done, I didn't give him much of a chance of being able to pull it off. Now he's here, on the verge of that final tug to get that bunny all the way out of that hat and show it to the audience—" he mimed reaching down into an invisible hat with his left hand and pulling it back up as if he was gripping the ears of a bunny "—and I'm not going to take this moment away from him on account of some anarchist schoolboys who have deluded themselves into thinking that they're an actual opposition party."

Princess Serenity quickly shuffled over towards the left side of the room, heading towards one of the attached side rooms, eager to remove herself from the company of these two.

"Kasios, you have one son!" Queen Serenity continued to fight. "If, and if there's even a tiny chance of something happening, then yes, it's an 'if', something happens, you don't get a second chance to undo it!"

"By that logic, Serenity, I should just cover him in a big roll of packing foam every morning and never let him leave. There's always a chance something bad can—"

Serenity was relieved to slide the door closed behind her, muting the semi-heated conversation. Quickly, she squatted down and set Chibiusa down on the carpeted floor of the makeshift bedroom, allowing her to begin exploring. She put her right hand beneath her chin in a tight fist, fighting to dispel any notions in her head of futilely attempting to help her husband survive this.

It only took a few beats for her fist to go limp and weak as her fingers started trembling, and her notice of this peculiar little physical tick took her attention. She put both of her hands out flat in front of her, watching them shake uncontrollably, betraying the tension that she felt. Quickly, she shoved both appendages to her sides, frantically looking around the room.

"

"Alright," Kunzite mumbled, tapping his right index finger up and down on top of a loose leaf of paper with some numbers scribbled on it. "It's a start. We can get there if we leave now with half a minuta to spare, maybe...scan the area, set up something."

"Where did this tip come from, exactly?" Zoisite asked from over Kunzite's shoulder.

"I already said," Kunzite mumbled ruefully. "And I know you heard me, why are you...making me repeat myself?"

"I'm sort of hoping that, eventually, you'll hear yourself say it and realize how ridiculous it sounds," Zoisite chided. "A tip from a man who runs an underground rum smuggling ring in a small town on Mars?"

"That's actually a fantastic idea for a business."

Both Kunzite and Zoisite spun their chairs around as Jadeite entered the cockpit of the ship. The secondary ship that they had moved to was a touch larger than _The Bastion_ , with a little bit of spacing between the cockpit and the main hub that even included a door separating the two, but was far less luxurious and not at all equipped with the Crown Prince in mind.

"Trust me, that planet is dry as a bone, anyone with so much as two bottles of sewer water with a couple drops of liquor in it would immediately become the most popular person around," Jadeite continued.

"Do you have something useful to say?" Zoisite asked flatly as Jadeite gently slid the door shut behind him.

"I'm just saying, someone like that, they could have some...pretty serious pull. Definitely would know some things, it's not the most...ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Jadeite shrugged.

"Know some things," Zoisite repeated in agreement. "But know where Cronus is about to be when he's travelling privately and secretly? You'll excuse me if I suspect we'd have the same chances just picking places at random."

"It's something, and we don't have time to be picky with our sources right now, I'm plotting a course for Mars," Kunzite insisted. "Jadeite, how's His Majesty holding up?"

"He's alive. Scribbling notes back there, bouncing ideas off Nephrite and me. He just can't seem to decide if he's writing a...writing up a plan or a farewell note to Serenity."

"How about both?" Zoisite remarked. "Why put all your eggs in one basket?"

"Can I advocate for some positivity right now?" Kunzite protested. "The Prince—"

The door that Jadeite had just closed whipped open suddenly, the final of Endymion's loyal generals poking his head inside. "The High King is calling the Prince right now. Everyone keep quiet unless you're prompted." He turned towards Zoisite. "Is _The Bastion_ in position?"

The smallest of the four guardians glanced to his left at a large, complex silver remote with a small viewscreen on it. "Yes. Are your men ready to provide alibis?"

Nephrite nodded, then turned back towards the main hub room and pointed across it to the Prince. Immediately, Endymion, hunched up in a seat against the back wall, engaged his communicator disc.

"H-hello? Dad?" Endymion said, tugging at his collar.

"Hey son, how's it going?"

Endymion's shoulders curved down in relief as the tension left his body. The High King, despite the stressful circumstances, sounded calm and casual.

"Well, tell him!"

"C-calm down, I'm getting to that!"

Endymion winced. Queen Serenity, his mother-in-law, sounded anything but calm and casual. He shot an uneasy look up at Nephrite, but continued on.

"Uh, g-great, actually, everything's going according to plan!" Endymion said, voice cracking just a bit. "Time consuming, meeting a lot of people, you know."

"Great, great," Kasios replied through the communicator. "So, son, I have to ask, these business meetings you're going through, do they absolutely require your personal presence? Is it something your generals could possibly handle?"

"U-uh, why do you ask?" Endymion asked.

"Endymion, we want you to come back to the palace, now!" Queen Serenity's shrill voice stepped into the conversation yet again.

"Yes, yes," Kasios said reluctantly. "Um, the assassination threat, it's just a little...some people are a little concerned about you putting yourself in the open right now. So, if there's any way we can make it work...could you maybe come back here? Just hang out with us in the bunker for awhile?"

"Oh, yes, uh...the assassination thing, yes," Endymion said, giving a dismissive chuckle. "Almost forgot about that. You know, I just had such a hard time taking it seriously, I...it's like a joke. The A-I-F?"

"

Kasios squinted, the communicator disc held up close to his mouth. He could feel Queen Serenity's breath on the back of his neck as she closely monitored the conversation. "Yeah, tell me about it. I feel like a schmuck just being down here in the bunker."

Queen Serenity opened her mouth to say something, but after a beat, reached up and smacked Kasios on the back of the head. It wasn't a particularly hard strike, but was enough to get the High King to jerk his head forward in shock, then spin around to give the Queen a withering look.

The Queen blinked rapidly a few times, then tilted her head to stare down at her right hand as if it had acted on its own, independent of her intentions.

Kasios quickly shook it off and turned back to the communicator disc. "B-but, that being said, son, it'd be nice to have you here, just in case. Stranger things have happened, so any chance you can make your way over here?"

"D-dad, come on, I...d-d-don't get me wrong, I think it's good for you to take every precaution, the threat was against you, but...look, if the A-I-F actually does have the ability and courage to try something like this, their gripe is with you, not me! And I have my generals, all four of them! N-no, you—"

Queen Serenity lunged forward and ripped the disc out of Kasios's hand, again shocking him. "Endymion, come to the palace, now!"

"Oh, oh, uh...Serenity, uh, mom. Gods, sorry, it just feels awkward, calling you mom—"

"Endymion! Enough, just...I want you here! I don't like...just, please, whatever it is you're doing it can wait! You're the Crown Prince of Earth, it's ridiculous that you can't...postpone things to keep yourself safe! If something happens, think about what happens to this whole Kingdom!" Serenity pressed her left palm up to her forehead. "Please?!"

"Serenity, it's fine. Don't worry about me. Really, I might be safer here with my generals than down in that bunker, with or without an assassin running around."

"I...I think your wife would like you here," the Queen said, taking her voice down a little bit. "In fact, you know, maybe you won't listen to me, but, you just, I'm putting you on hold. Do not end the call, I'm putting your wife on!"

"No, no—"

Serenity pressed her thumb down on one of the buttons around the disc, then quickly swept across the room, towards the side chamber that her daughter and granddaughter had retreated into several minutas ago. "Sweetie! Are you there?!"

No immediate reply, but the Queen was not to be deterred.

"Um, okay, just for the record," Kasios began, scowling over at the Queen, then reaching up to point at the back of his head. "Not okay, and not okay." He used his other hand to point at the communicator that Serenity had just snatched out of his hand.

The Queen caught herself a little bit, stopping right next to the closed wooden door and leaning up against the wall to the immediate right of it. She turned back towards Kasios. "I-I'm sorry. Just...I want him to think that this matters. It's not...it doesn't help when he hears you say that this threat isn't worth taking seriously!"

"What do you want me to do, lie?" Kasios asked. "He's right. He sees the exact same thing I do. And he's an adult."

Serenity groaned, then spun around and pounded her fist lightly into the wall. "Sweetie! I want you to talk to your husband!"

"

Grimacing, Princess Serenity pressed her head back into the wall right next to the door, right on the other side of where she thought her mother was knocking. She sighed, keeping an eye on Chibiusa as she shook a large toy doll around on her spot on the floor right at the foot of the bed.

"Sweetie! I have your husband on the communicator, he's refusing to come, maybe you can talk some sense into him!"

Her nostrils twitched. "It's fine!" she finally answered. "I don't need to talk to him."

"What?! Serenity, he's your _husband_ , and he's recklessly putting himself in danger for no reason! If you tell him he has to come home, I'm sure he'll listen! He has to listen to you, you're his wife!"

"He's...he'll be fine," Serenity managed, looking down guiltily at her right hand, resting on the armrest of the chair she had moved to be right by the door. Inbetween her second and third finger was a cigarette, tip lit and slowly burning down the paper-wrapped tobacco. "I don't need to talk to him. No thank you. He can do what he feels is right."

She heard her mother groan, but seemingly give up as her next few words were clearly not coming from up against the wall behind her. "He...he ended the call! I told him not to end the call, he hung up!"

"Serenity, just…"

The young Princess stopped trying to listen, instead lifting the cigarette to her lips. She had found a collection of them alongside a small bar in the corner of the room, right next to the gin.

She had never smoked before. The thought of doing it had never even occurred to her, truthfully. She had always been brought up to believe that smoking was for the working class and people old enough to not particularly care anymore if it did shorten their lifespan. She wasn't even entirely sure she was doing it right. But somehow, it just spoke to her right now, more than a simple stiff drink.

Inhaling the output of the cigarette and letting it roll around in her lungs, she did actually find both a physical and mental relief in it. After a moment, she bent over and blew the smoke directly into a vent next to her legs.

She hadn't even fully formulated how she was going to get away with this. The ventilation system down in the bunker might have been closely monitored and she might be an exhalation away from tripping some sort of alarm with the toxins. There could have been a tightly-kept inventory on everything kept in the bar. None of this had deterred her. If anything, the prospect of doing something that she shouldn't do almost seemed to motivate her. Surely, if her husband could somehow get away with everything he was currently doing, she could sneak a smoke or two through.

She held her left hand up in front of her face, noting that her fingers had at least stopped shaking. Evasively glancing at the door, she lifted the cigarette back to her lips.

"

"Maybe a video message," Endymion mused, holding up a holo-recorder between his long fingers. "Better than a note." He shrugged, twisting the puck-shaped device around in his hand. "Either way, what could I do to make sure she found it?" He rolled his eyes, suddenly slapping the puck down on the counter in front of where he was seated. Jadeite startled up, nearly falling out of his seat across from the Crown Prince.

The two young adults were gathered near the back of the cabin of Kunzite's temporary ship, Jadeite taking his turn of trying to keep Endymion's spirits and optimism up. The vessel was parked a half a dolicho away from a small docking station close to the southern pole of Mars, waiting for what they were hoping would be Cronus's ship. Everyone knew it was a longshot at best, but it was as good a place to start as any.

"Waste of time," Endymion reasoned. "Gods, what am I doing? Obviously, any message I try to get to Serenity will be seen by the entire universe before it gets to her."

"Then deliver the message to her in person, when you see her tomorrow, after you resolve this situation," Jadeite said stiffly, trying to keep up a good front despite his own doubts.

"That was good," Endymion said with a thin smile. "Your bedside manner is much better than Nephrite's. I'll give you that much."

"I'm serious," he continued. "Your Highness, this is why we're here. To handle situations like this."

Endymion didn't bother replying, leaning back in his chair instead, a bemused smile on his face.

"And hey, we got what we wanted with your father, right?" Jadeite pointed out. "It worked out exactly the way we were hoping. Threat significant enough to get him down in the bunker, but not significant enough for him to actually feel like he's in real danger. We always kind of figured the Queen would overreact to it, that was the best case scenario."

"Sure," Endymion acknowledged. "Little victories. One that'll get erased very quickly if I'm away from the palace for so long that even he can't understand it. And speaking of time, I feel like we've been parked here a lot longer than a minuta."

"Think about how appreciative Serenity's going to be when we get back," Jadeite suggested. "She'll probably forget all about the lying and sneaking around behind her back and—"

"Okay, now you're trying too hard," Endymion said. "That's not happening. Stop it."

The entire room shuddered a tiny bit and Endymion could just barely make out the sound of the engine. Expectantly, he turned to look at the door that led up to the cockpit. Sure enough, beats later, it opened just as the back entry hatch of the ship gave a pneumatic hiss and fell open.

Zoisite came in from the cockpit just as Kunzite and Nephrite came up the entry ramp, both of the larger of the generals toting long rifles.

"Anything? Did he show?" Endymion asked.

"No," Kunzite grunted. "And we've been in one place for too long." He pointed across the cabin at Zoisite. "Get us out of here, take us off the planet."

Zoisite dutifully spun back around to follow his orders as the entry ramp quickly slammed shut behind Nephrite. Jadeite got to his feet, hands up by the sides of his head.

"So what, did he see us and run off?" Jadeite asked.

"How should we know?" Nephrite hissed, tossing his rifle to the ground with a loud clang as it bounced against the metallic floor.

Jadeite shook his head. "You know, this approach we're taking it's...it's all wrong. The more I think about it. Even if we somehow do manage to find him, we're meeting him on his terms. Meeting him where he wants to be."

"If you have a better idea, and I'm actually not being sarcastic, I'd love to hear it, Jadeite," Kunzite said, ripping a couple strips of velcro on his sides apart so he could remove a heavy white vest from his torso.

"We want to kill him. But he wants to kill us just as much. That's how this works, right? We should be forcing him to be the aggressor, come to us, where we're ready for him. Right now we're running around, chasing shadows, if we catch him we'll just get in a fight with a big disadvantage."

"Cronus has no reason to ever get close to us," Kunzite quickly dismissed. "If we tried to lure him to where we are, all we'd get is a swarm of his men or bounty hunters while he's halfway across the galaxy."

Endymion pushed his right hand's fingers through his thick black hair slowly, thinking about Jadeite's suggestion. Despite Kunzite quickly shooting the general concept down, he let the concept bounce around in his head. He turned to look out one of the side windows, watching as the atmosphere of Mars outside quickly gave way to the black vacuum of space, the vessel pushing through the orbital pull of the planet to break out into deep space.

"That's what I'm saying, we lure him. Not his men, not his paid assassins, him. What we're doing right now, it'll never work." Jadeite put his right arm against the wall right by the window Endymion was peering through, leaning up against it.

The cockpit door opened, Zoisite sticking his head into the cabin and looking around. "Alright, we're away and on autopilot. I need a location, where are we going?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," Endymion answered. "How do we get Cronus to come to us?"

"We don't," Kunzite insisted. "The thing about men like Cronus, is that they don't make mistakes. And exposing himself even in the slightest to us would be a massive mistake. He's certainly smart enough to know that he needs to remain hidden until we're neutralized as a threat."

"Then make him make a mistake," Jadeite replied. "That's what war is, isn't it? Come on, what does he care about? What could make him act irrationally? He must have something."

"He cares about his corporations," Nephrite thought aloud. "And his money. Not sure how we use that."

"Money's just a middleman," Zoisite pointed out, taking a couple steps out into the cabin, hands on his hips. "Nobody wants money just for the sake of having money, they want...they want security, goods, services, leverage, money's just how they get those things. And I'm positive that Cronus was making more than enough money to support himself just through his labs and his pharmaceuticals, but he chose to be the biggest imperium smuggler in the galaxy on top of it. For some reason, the trillions he had weren't enough, how could that be?"

Endymion's face wrinkled up as he searched his brain for the answer to this question that he had passively spent time considering for over a year now. Why would Cronus need more money than the massive fortune he already had off the back of his legitimate businesses?

"He's always been fairly private. Doesn't let me into his personal life very much," Endymion admitted. "Well, actually, there was that one thing." He turned to his eldest general. "Kunzite, don't you remember? You were there when he said it, he...he had a child."

Kunzite sighed. "If he does, he's done a spectacular job of keeping it a secret from the rest of the world. There's no record of him having any children, I checked myself. He's a very public figure, it would be hard for him to keep that hidden. I doubt he was telling the truth."

"If Cronus wants to keep some aspect of his life secret, then he'll find a way to make it happen, I don't doubt that for a second," Endymion countered, starting to slowly pace back and forth.

"Your Highness, don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's very likely he made that story about his daughter up to...manipulate you," Kunzite said cautiously.

"Of _course_ he was manipulating me, I understand that, but that doesn't mean he was making it up," Endymion reasoned. "Yes, daughter, he said daughter, and she'd be about thirteen now. But he said...he said everything he did, he did for her. Let's assume he wasn't making it up."

The sparks of optimism were suddenly beginning to fire off in the five-way conversation, as if a lightbulb had suddenly started to flicker on.

"Why would a teenage daughter need that much money when the father is already one of the wealthiest men who ever lived?" Nephrite asked.

"No, no, that's not even the weirdest thing," Endymion continued, his face relaxing as he spun around to look at Kunzite. "He said that he hadn't seen his daughter since she was a baby! I didn't think about it very much at the time, but...that doesn't make any sense. He's Cronus, maybe the most powerful person in the galaxy outside of royals and the Grandmaster of the agency, why wouldn't he be able to see his daughter if he wanted to?"

"I'm afraid the answer is probably because she doesn't exist," Kunzite said wearily, not buying into this particular revelation just yet.

"I mean, the implication is...a divorce where the wife gets full custody, that's what it always is. But he didn't say that, and that wouldn't even make sense for him. He said...that she would be raised to hate him, too." Endymion steepled his fingers right underneath his chin. "My father once told me that Cronus may as well have not existed up until a little more than a decade ago."

"Most records on Saturn have been destroyed in the civil war, having no record of your past is actually a fairly common thing for people who grew up there recently," Kunzite said reasonably, trying to temper the Crown Prince's expectations.

"Well, put it all together, there has to be _something_ we can at least try with all of this," Endymion said, starting to sound a little frantic. "The man seemingly appeared out of thin air eleven years ago as a scientific genius with no peer, he seems like he won't be satisfied until he has all the money in the solar system, he's doing it all for his daughter that he never sees, come on, that has to be worth more than chasing random tips from random people around the galaxy!"

The room fell silent for several long beats, as all four generals followed the implied order from their charge to come up with a sensible summation of all of these oddities. A few secundas ago, Endymion was so resigned to his fate that the mood in the ship practically felt lighthearted, but suddenly it was thick with tension again.

"I never thought that the correlation came with any causation, but there was one thing I couldn't help but notice when following the news over the last year."

Endymion, Jadeite, Nephrite, and Kunzite all looked over at the smallest of the young adults in the cabin, whose top-of-the-line mind seemed to be about to produce something of meaning.

"The civil war in Saturn has turned heavily over the last year, in favor of the ruling royal house. It had been a bloody stalemate for years before. The ruling house gaining the upper hand coincides with when you started working with Cronus." Zoisite shrugged. "Cronus has made statements publically in support of the ruling house before."

"So...Cronus worked with Endymion and smuggled imperium to raise funds to assist Saturn with the war?" Nephrite stated slowly. "Cronus couldn't use his own money that he uses to run his corporations, he's too accountable to shareholders to justify that."

"Maybe," Zoisite said. "The money he's made partnering with the Prince, if applied intelligently, could be enough to shift a planet wide war."

"The King of Saturn died...twelve years ago? Maybe a little less," Endymion recalled. "What was it, he...he realized he was going to be forcibly removed from the throne by the people and committed suicide, right?" He put his hand up to his forehead, closing his eyes, still pacing around the open cabin area.

"The former King Saturn has what to do with any of this?" Jadeite asked.

"Okay, okay, follow me here." He put the tips of his index fingers up in front of his eyes, just a finger length or two away from each other. "The King of Saturn, an scientific genius in his own right, commits suicide so he doesn't have to be held accountable for his crimes against humanity via human experimentation. Less than a year later, Cronus basically pops out of the ground and takes the galaxy by storm with his work in medical science." He put his index fingertips together in front of him. "And there's your thirteen year old daughter."

"Wait," Kunzite said, stepping up right behind his charge. "You're trying to suggest that Cronus is the former King Saturn, reborn?"

"Well, it's a lot easier to assume that the former King Saturn faked his death and came back with a new identity, but...basically, yes," Endymion said, spinning around, face suddenly re-invigorated.

"T-there was a corpse and everything!" Jadeite argued. "And they look nothing alike!"

"Both things that are no obstacle for a man with that kind of power," Zoisite pointed out.

"You're not actually buying into this, are you?" Jadeite asked.

"I'm as eager to strike gold on a far-fetched longshot idea as any of us," Kunzite said, putting his hands out towards Zoisite and Endymion. "But we're making an awful lot of assumptions and logical leaps to get to this."

"No, no we're not," Endymion argued. "It matches up, Kunzite. There's no record of Cronus existing up until eleven years ago because he _didn't_ exist until eleven years ago. He can't see his daughter because, by official record, she's _not_ his daughter. It's the only way these pieces fit together." Suddenly, Endymion broke off from the gathering, marching up towards the cockpit door. "We have a destination."

"W-wait!" Kunzite protested, giving pursuit, the remaining three generals quickly falling into line behind their most esteemed colleague. "Your Highness, there _are_ some other leads I have that we could consider!"

"We don't need them," Endymion said, practically vaulting into the pilot seat and bringing up the main controls. "We're going to Saturn. And we're going to be extremely busy on the way, so everyone get ready."

"Okay, well, what's the plan?" Kunzite said, quickly coming to an understanding that his judgement was being overruled here and that the best he could do now is give this particular idea his full attention.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Endymion said, fingers a blur as he plotted a course for the vessel to embark on. "Cronus ran away from the throne so he wouldn't be held accountable for his human experimentation, but he wants the throne to pass to his progeny, stay in his family. Of course he does. Everything he's done since Cronus came to exist, all he's worked on the last eleven years, it's been for her."

The ship spun around on its horizontal axis, then suddenly ripped forward through space with a lurch that was barely felt inside the cockpit.

"So that's why he's done all this. That's what he cares about. He cares about her. So that's what we use to get to him. That's what we use to make him make a mistake," Endymion finished.

"H...how?" Kunzite asked, mildly afraid of the answer.

Endymion sighed. "I'm still working that part of it out, we'll come up with the exact details on the way." He twisted his head to his right. "Zoisite, get ready to connect a call to the palace on Saturn. We need them to know that we're on the way."

Endymion flipped a couple levers up above his head, and then finally was able to bring his hands back into his lap, the ship on a direct course for the war-torn planet of Saturn.


	47. The King is Dead

Chapter 47: The King is Dead

"From everything I've seen on the news, it seems like things are going very well for you," Endymion said, taking on a more regal and refined accent. "In fact, it seems that it would be fair to say that you're winning."

"T-thank you, Your Highness," the communicator replied back through the speaker end. "Yes, if I may say so myself, we've experienced some good fortune and some strong results over the last year. It would at least be fair to say we have the advantage right now, but we're aware that things can flip very quickly. We're taking nothing for granted."

"That's good," Endymion replied. "So, I'll get straight to the point. I'm sure you're as busy as I am, perhaps even more. You've got The Rings on the run. Pushing them back, taking territory, shredding their manpower and resources. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. But it's still far away, right?"

"O-oh, there's...certainly still work to be done, Your Majesty. The Rings remain a potent, dangerous faction with enough power to threaten our planet. It could be years before the threat is truly neutralized."

Endymion nodded. "And then there's the cleanup afterwards. Hard for me to believe that the planet is exactly in the best of shape after over a decade of non-stop war."

"That's a...a fair assessment, Your Highness."

"Well then, Mister Cassini, that's where I come in. Suppose your efforts were bolstered by an ally. An ally with a large military and cutting edge resources." Endymion paused for a beat. "Is that something you'd be interested in?"

"Are you...is this an offer? Your Majesty?"

"A tentative one," Endymion corrected. "But yes, you can consider this an offer. I'd like to offer my assistance in bringing closure to your war. Of course, when I say that, I'm speaking about the military might of the Kingdom of Earth. I think, with our joint cooperation, we could see the end of the war inside of a year. And I can also see a path to us working together on post-war maintenance to get the Kingdom back up and running again."

"...um, I'm sorry, Your Highness, I'm just...well, how should I say this? You...you're speaking for the Kingdom of Earth in making this statement?"

"Of course," Endymion answered. "In what other capacity could I possibly be offering assistance like this?"

"It's just...uh, you're not...well, I can assume that you're speaking on behalf of High King Kasios?"

"Of course I am," Endymion said quickly, mildly irked for the first time. He glanced up at the front of the cockpit, where Kunzite was lounging, keeping an eye on the controls as the ship continued its long-distance jump to Saturn. "I have the authority of the High King of Earth, what, you think I'm just wasting your time with this conversation?"

Kunzite glanced over his shoulder, making a settling gesture with his right hand.

"S-s-so sorry, Your Highness, I didn't mean to...please, accept my apologies." Cassini cleared his throat. "But, yes, of course, Your Majesty, we'd be honored and deeply appreciative if the Earth Kingdom would lend Saturn a hand during these delicate times!"

"Wonderful," Endymion said, disposition brightening quickly. "And don't worry about it, I understand your need for clarification. Now, I'm on my way over to you, I'd like to meet with the current regime in charge of the Kingdom of Saturn as soon as possible."

"...on your w-way?" Cassini stuttered.

"Yes, me and a couple of my generals can be there in...four minutas. So, it's my understanding that you're one of the primary caretakers of the Kingdom, so of course you'll need to be present, but anyone else who's involved in decision-making up there should be invited as well. And, of course, the Princess herself. That all sounds fine?"

"Y-yes, yes, but...I just wasn't expecting you to be on your way! Such short notice, and...and you—"

"Well, we're all very busy people, my father among the busiest. And I think you'd benefit from this arrangement going into effect as soon as possible, and we can't exactly volunteer our forces without coming to a mutual understanding with regard to what we can expect to receive in return after this. Unless it's not feasible to meet right now?"

"N...no! No! Not at all, Your Highness, I'll see to it that all relevant parties are present! We can meet as soon as you arrive! What are you in, a B-class?"

"On the larger side of a B-class, but yes," Endymion answered smoothly.

"I'll make sure there's a spot for you in the hangar and they're prepared for you, just...fly right in and you'll be directed into a dock. Very eager to meet with you, Your Highness, and we can't wait to discuss the particulars of this agreement!"

"See you soon, Mister Cassini," Endymion said, quickly ending the conversation by tapping the center of the disc and pocketing it. "Either he's being polite or we've got them on the hook." He got to his feet, swinging up out of the passenger chair.

"They need us," Kunzite agreed. "Of course, we should be cautious about what we promise, given the current financial state of the Kingdom you're about to inherit."

"That's a problem for another time. A time when the priority is not simply staying alive." He quickly marched over to the door separating the cockpit and cabin, tapping a button on the wall to open it up. Stepping through confidently, pleased with the initial phase of his plan working so well, he immediately approached Zoisite, who was sitting against the left side of the cabin.

"We're on, Your Highness?" Zoisite asked, standing up.

"If you feel it'd be good to have multiple voices making the calls, just ask," Endymion said as Zoisite picked a small blue communicator from a pile of identical ones on the counter space right next to him. "I don't particularly mind how you do it, use your best discretion. But I want every camera on that planet pointed at me when I get to that hangar, and I want everyone very confused on where the tips came from."

"Will do," Zoisite answered, prompting Endymion to turn towards the center area of the cabin.

Nephrite and Jadeite were unwrapping large brown bundles of a clay substance and ripping off pieces of it, an empty green luggage container laid open between them.

"Remember, gentlemen. A firecracker isn't going to cut it," Endymion stated.

"We don't need to vaporize the entire thing, just bust a big hole in it," Jadeite pointed out, shoving a small metal stake into a wad of clay.

"Don't think like that," Endymion warned. "In this particular instance, we'd much rather have something too big rather than too small." He reached his hand into his inside right pocket, withdrawing a small golden paddle from it and holding it up. "Jadeite, look."

The blond Earth general took his focus away from shaping the explosive, eyes focusing in on the simple object in the Prince's hand. "It's the only one you'll have on you?"

"I'd imagine it'll be the only one in the entire palace," Endymion answered, tossing it over to Jadeite in a lazy arc. Immediately, Jadeite froze it in midair with his mind, raising his hand up towards it and pulling it over towards him. "At the very least, the only one in the room that I'll be in. But this is important, we won't be able to use communicators at all while we're inside the palace."

"I'll make it work," Jadeite said after quickly examining the paddle, tossing it back towards the Prince. He caught it and put it back where it had just been, inside his jacket pocket.

"Listen carefully, I'm not in the business of repeating myself," Zoisite said, holding one of the small communicators up to his mouth, the connected earpiece inserted into his right ear. A piece of paper was crumpled up over the microphone piece of the disc, masking his voice slightly. "This is the biggest story of the year, you're going to want to be covering it. The Crown Prince of Earth is headed to the Saturn Palace as we speak to negotiate an alliance in the war. He'll be arriving later today, four minutas at most."

With that, Zoisite quickly hung up, tossing the communicator down onto the ground by his feet casually. "One down, twenty-eight to go."

"

"Call down to the kitchens," Cassini ordered, pointing down the long hallway towards a pair of middle-aged women, both wearing dark purple maid outfits. "Tell them...they've got four minutas to get everything in the room. Not out of the oven, but in the room. Tell them Earth dishes! Something wealthy people from Earth would be familiar with! Make a spread for twenty people!"

As his left hand pointed down at the two maids, his right hand knocked rapidly on a thick wooden door. Mere beats later, the door swung open, a tall, thin, brown-haired man standing right there.

"This is real?" he asked Cassini immediately, getting him to give him a bewildered look.

"What, you think I'd joke about something like this? Come on, we need to move." Cassini jerked his head over to the right, down the hall. "Be a real shame if this went poorly."

"Where was this ten years ago, when we actually needed them?" The brown-haired man fell into line right behind Cassini, giving close pursuit. "You know why they're doing this now, don't you?"

"Of course I do, what does it matter? Do you want this war to go on any longer than it absolutely has to, Damon?" Cassini moved purposefully down the long, towering hallway.

"Of course not," Damon assured. "I'm just saying, they'd just as soon ally with The Rings if they thought they were winning. They don't...they're not helping us because they think we're right."

"We'll get over it," Cassini said, glancing over his left shoulder.

"All I'm saying is that this is pure opportunism on the part of Earth. Let's keep that in mind when they're pushing us for repayment after this is over," Damon grunted.

"We're not going to promise them anything that we can't deliver on," Cassini assured him. "But do not underestimate the value of ending the war in a year as opposed to three. Maybe even six cycles. Not much of a victory if the whole planet is rubble. This is an alliance worth sacrificing for."

The top aide to the House of Saturn finally got to the last door on the left of the extended hall. Cassini placed his hand on the knob.

"Her nap isn't scheduled to finish for another minuta and a quarter," Damon pointed out just before Cassini twisted the knob. "Can we afford it?"

"No," Cassini grunted. "The last thing we need is the Prince of Earth coming in here and seeing a sickly, weak heir to the throne. We'll need every moment we have to make her look as good as possible."

With that, Cassini pushed the door open, giving less consideration to being delicate as he entered the room than he ever had before. He marched across the carpet of the dimmed, darkened room, eyes glued directly to the teenage Princess who was curled up underneath a dark purple blanket. He hurried across the large chamber towards her.

"Your Highness?" Cassini called out, ignoring the strong wave of fragrances hitting him as he got closer to the large bed, assorted herbal arrangements designed to assist with her REM cycles. "Your Highness, it's time to get up."

The Princess stirred, head twisting upward slightly. "Mm."

"Your Highness, something very good has happened," Cassini explained, stopping right next to the bed, Damon just two steps behind him. "But we need to act quickly to assure that it's meaningful."

"Huh?" Saturn sat up slightly, finally blinking her eyes open. "What do you mean?"

"We may finally have ourselves an ally. A valuable one. One that can help bring a swift end to this war," Cassini continued. "Prince Endymion of Earth is on his way as we speak, and we need this meeting to go well."

The Princess shook the haziness of waking up off almost immediate, face suddenly going sharp with seriousness. She tossed the blanket off of her small body, scooting to the edge of the bed. "Okay, okay! I'm up! W-when did this happen?!"

"Just now. Wash up, you need to get ready!" Cassini encouraged. "I doubt you'll need to do much more than just sit there, but the healthier you look, the more confidence they'll have in investing in us. I'll try to get you out of the boring parts, but I'm sure he'll at least want to meet you."

Princess Saturn's feet hit the carpet and she was up, her energy levels quickly rising at the prospect of actually being able to do something to affect the outcome of the war that had consumed her home planet for longer than her memory could recall. "Got it!"

"And please, eat before they arrive," Cassini added tersely. "I'd rather not let them see what your diet consists of."

"

Mimas City was the crown jewel of Saturn, closely neighboring the royal palace with a wealthy collection of residents to match the prime location. One of the very few places on the entire planet that was well-protected enough to be shielded from the effects of the war, you could easily have taken a look at the city and assumed all was well on the whole planet.

The regal metropolis was still stable enough to convince residents to remain, and was even in a good enough state to attract some small amount of tourism. Boasting the finest hotels, attractions, and monuments on the planet, Mimas also had the largest airport around. And it was this particular airport that Jadeite and Zoisite currently had their focus on.

The two of them had been dropped off just outside the city, a couple dolichos from the airport. With the Prince and his two more physically imposing generals headed off to the palace, they were left behind to handle the behind-the-scenes work of their little deception. Both of them were casually strolling through the main entrance of the port, amidst a figurative sea of other people either entering or exiting the facility. For the moment, they were as anonymous as any of them, and could just as easily have been salesmen, peddling their wares through Mimas before moving on. Or vacationers, taking a few days to bask in one of the last remaining vestiges of civilization on Saturn. Nobody could have had any idea that they were mere minutas away from participating in a galaxy-altering scheme.

Zoisite reached over, managing to clap Jadeite on the back just after the two passed through the entrance hall with his left hand. His right held the green luggage container that had been packed full of clay earlier.

"Meet you in Hangar A," Zoisite said, voice just barely audible over the general din being kicked up by so many people being packed close together.

"I'll be as quick as I can," Jadeite mumbled back, breaking off towards the right side of the entrance lobby, gently pushing through the crowd.

"

Endymion leaned forward as far as he could towards the front windshield of the cockpit, looking down at the ground right in front of the entrance to the Saturn Palace hangar. It was about as good as he could possibly hope for. The entire area was tightly packed with bodies.

"They don't have any way of knowing that we're in this ship, do they?" Endymion asked.

"Not for sure," Kunzite replied, keeping a hand on the ship controls as he guided the B-class into the gaping maw built into the side of the palace, where all other ships that had some sort of business with Saturn royalty were parked. "But I'm sure they're all assuming it."

A tiny red light on the dashboard started blinking rapidly. Kunzite reached forward and pressed a button right next to the indicator. A clear voice emitted out of a speaker up by the ceiling of the cockpit.

"Um, Head Aide Cassini wants you to know that there are multiple spots available for your ship near the back of the hangar. If you dock back there, they won't be able to see who you are when you come out."

"Oh...seems like they already know," Endymion replied. "I'm not too worried about it, honestly. Thank you for the offer, though."

Kunzite quickly tapped the button again, ending the conversation. Endymion leaned forward again, taking a closer look at the crowd assembled, this time picking up on some of the finer details. Several uniformed palace guards were forming a line in front of the hangar, using their bodies to prevent the unruly mob from breaking through into the actual facility. Everyone who was trying to push their way in as close as possible was holding either a holo-recorder or a camera, the majority of which had been aimed up at the underside of the ship.

"What do you think we have down there? Six dozen media people?" Endymion asked.

"More than enough for what we need," Kunzite said, zipping the ship through the opening and quickly turning it sharply to the right, finding the first available docking slot for the ship. Engaging the automatic parking mechanism, it took only a few beats for the vessel to come to rest on the dock.

Endymion spun around, quickly pushing the door between the cockpit and cabin open. Nephrite was waiting, just a couple steps beyond the door and a step to the right. The back hatch was falling open, rapidly dropping a ramp down to the ground level. Endymion tugged the front of his overcoat over his chest as he hurriedly stepped across the cabin, both of his burly generals falling into line behind him.

"We have the easy part now," Kunzite muttered under his breath.

With impressive speed, half a dozen palace pages gathered right at the base of the ramp, three on each side, and fell to one knee, waiting. Endymion spent only a brief beat of focus on them before looking up, finding the more meaningful welcome party jogging up towards them. He recognized Cassini, Head Aide to the Princess until she came of age, and probably the most important person for Endymion to put in a good mood over the next few minutas. The other four people running alongside him, he didn't recognize off the top of his head.

"I...I…" Cassini panted, having clearly just ran across the hangar. He gave a tired arm wave over towards the sea of media people just outside the hangar, who were still creating a rather chaotic scene as they fought to capture the best, clearest proof of Prince Endymion's presence. "I don't know how it leaked."

"Hm," Endymion said as he stopped right at the foot of the ramp. "I understand freedom of the press is important, but that's positively barbaric."

"Your Highness, I am exceedingly sorry," Cassini continued, bowing low over towards Endymion, clearly a little distressed. "I can assure you, the leak didn't come from me, and I'll exhaust all resources to find out who is to blame for this!"

"I don't mind," Endymion said smoothly. "Kind of inevitable with things this big. And it doesn't really change all that much." Endymion raised his right hand up in the air, waving towards the large, tight gathering amicably. He turned back towards his welcoming party, sticking his right arm out towards Cassini. "Good to meet. It's been some time."

Cassini was mildly apprehensive, but soon put his own arm out to grab Endymion's. "W-welcome to Saturn, Your Highness!" He took a small half step to the side, twisting around to point at his companions. "I don't think you've met my colleagues before." He started pointing down the line of four middle-aged men. "Uh, Treasury Secretary Dorus, Defense Secretary Hyginos, Education Secretary Fotis, and...Junior Defense Secretary Bion." All four men bowed towards the Prince and his generals.

"Defense a high priority right now, makes sense," Endymion mused, reaching his right hand into the left inside pocket of his overcoat. "Where's the Princess?"

"Waiting in the room I've set aside for our meeting," Cassini answered as he watched the Prince pull out a roll of cred bills from his front chest pocket. "But...uh…"

Endymion took a couple paces over to the nearest of the six kneeling pages, holding his hand out towards the much shorter blond man. "Hey, up."

The black-clad servant picked his head up, looking rather scared at being in such close proximity to the Crown Prince.

"To share," Endymion instructed, holding the roll of bills out towards the page. "Can you do that? You and your five friends?" He gestured around loosely at the other five servants, still kneeling around the ship's ramp, who were unable to help but pick their heads up to look.

"U-uh...uh...that's really not—"

"This is how things are done on my planet. I realize we're on yours, but please," Endymion insisted, bending down and shoving the tight roll into the front pocket of the man's uniform. "To share!" he reiterated. With that taken care of, he turned back towards the collection of Saturn's royal aides. "You were saying?"

"Oh, uh, I was just going to say that...Princess Saturn doesn't really have any royal responsibilities right now. She doesn't know anything that we don't tell her, and we only tell her to...satisfy her own curiosity." Cassini glanced around shiftily. "Her presence during our discussion isn't terribly necessary."

"Right now," Endymion repeated. "Of course a thirteen-year-old wouldn't be involved in decision making. But she will be when she comes of age. Less than five years away now. Her reign as Queen will overlap mine as King, I think she should be aware of things that will still be in effect between us when she does take the throne."

Cassini inhaled sharply. "Very well. I understand."

Endymion, a quick glance tossed over towards the pack of media members now being forcibly hoarded away from the hangar by the line of palace guards, put his left arm out towards the opposite end of the hangar. "Lead the way."

Quickly, Cassini turned and began beating a hasty path deeper into the hangar, his four colleagues following closely. Endymion, Kunzite, and Nephrite took up right behind them.

"Again, very sorry about the media. The timing is unbelievable, they flooded up by the hangar entrance _right_ before you got here. Four secundas earlier, I'd have them off palace grounds before you arrived, four secundas later, they'd have missed you entirely."

Endymion gave a wan smile. "I'm really not concerned about it."

"I'd like to say I'll have it all suppressed, but I doubt you're the kind of man who appreciates obvious lies, so I won't even bother," Cassini grumbled, his voice just loud enough to rise above the cacophony of clicking shoes against the concrete floor.

"Believe it or not, I'm used to every single person in the galaxy being aware of my every move," Endymion replied easily. "Comes with the birthright. Besides, I'm proud of what I'm doing here today."

"

"Send him in!"

The portly man with a crown of thinning black hair took his finger off the intercom on his desk and leaned back in his spinning chair. Mere moments later, the door right across him swung open. Jadeite entered the crowded, messy office, cabinets stacked to the ceiling and large boxes lying open on the floor.

"Afternoon," the man announced. "Phillipp, how can I help you, uh...Seth, was it?"

"Seth," Jadeite repeated, twisting his head around to look at the engraved piece of brass on the door, marked as 'Phillipp, Head Supervisor of Private Airstrips and Hangars'. "And if this engraving is accurate, I think you can definitely help me." He tapped the door shut behind him, removing the black bowler hat from his head and holding it against his chest.

"If you have business with our private airstrips or hangars, then I'm indeed the man to see," Phillipp said confidently. "Sorry about the mess, by the way. I've just been moved here."

"Not a problem," Jadeite assured. "I'll be quick, I'm sure you're busy. I represent Cronus, and he's going to be here later today."

"Well, that's a name that certainly gets my attention," Phillipp said. "He'll be flying in, I assume?"

"Yes, and I'm here to make sure everything is smooth when he lands. He's conducting some important business, time-sensitive matter. I was wondering if we could reserve Hangar A, Row Four. Is that possible?"

Quickly, Phillipp reached forward and pulled a large tablet off the desk in front of him, tapping the middle of it to awaken the screen. "Well, I'm pretty sure that one's open, let me double-check. Hangar A is right next to the commercial flights, though, if that matters."

"Not a problem," Jadeite said. "There's one other thing. He won't be here for too long, but I'd like to get his ship washed while he's got it parked in your hangar."

Phillipp quickly nodded. "I can certainly arrange for that."

"Like, not just a wipedown. A real cleansing. Inside the engine grill, the vents, everything you can. What's the most thorough process you have, how long does it take on a large B-class?" Jadeite reached up to scratch his forehead.

"Oh, uh...from start to finish, I'd say a little less than four minutas. M-maybe four exactly, to be safe. We have to...pull it off the dock and put it in this little stall to wash it, of course."

Jadeite grimaced. "Okay, I...I think that'll be perfect, actually. Yes, do that, but...just to be safe, could you arrange for the process to begin as soon as the ship gets parked? D-don't even bother Cronus with it, just...as soon as he gets off, get your guys on it? He'll be in a hurry, and I don't want him to get back to find his ship not ready for flight."

"Oh, hey, for a man like Cronus, we do whatever we need to do to accommodate him. I'll get a crew on it the moment he leaves the hangar. As long as you can guarantee me four minutas, I can guarantee that it'll be done by the time he gets back." Phillipp nodded confidently.

Jadeite surreptitiously removed a rolled up bundle of cred bills from inside his thick long coat, tossing it out onto the desk in front of Phillipp. "Pleasure doing business with you." Jadeite started to turn around, his right index finger twitching as he pulled it back towards his palm.

"W-wai—"

Phillipp's attempt to draw Jadeite's attention was interrupted by a loud, chaotic crash from right behind him. The large man spun around quickly in his chair, eyes wide and expression fearful, just in time to see the final contents of one of the cardboard boxes spill out haphazardly on the floor. One of the flimsy crates had burst open at the seams, and owing to that particular one being stacked atop a collection of them, the assorted of papers and files quickly splashed around behind Phillipp on the carpet.

His attention was pulled into this unexpected little disaster, eyes darting around as valuable information was disorganized and scattered around. He needed a moment to gather himself and resettle his nerves.

"S-sorry, it really is a mess in here," Phillipp muttered. "Don't know why that—"

He spun his chair back around, only to find he was talking to himself. Amid the short-lived chaos of the box ripping open, he had disappeared, slipping out the door. Phillipp scrambled up to his feet.

"Wait, WAIT!" he called out, hoping his voice could get through the closed door and reach him out in the hall, or perhaps that he had stayed for a moment to converse with his secretary. He rounded his desk quickly and stumbled over to the door, ripping it open and spilling out into the hallway just outside. "Hey!"

The hallway outside of his office was a non-trivial length, passing by a couple dozen other small side rooms before leading back out into the main hub of the airport. However, there was nobody there on that extended stretch of hall.

"Seth!" he called out.

"Sir?"

Phillipp spun around, his secretary's desk right at the very end of the hallway, crammed in between the two tight walls. It was less of a desk and more of an end table. An unfortunate necessity of the recent move.

"S-Seth, the guy who just came out, where'd he go?!" Phillipp asked.

"Uh, down the hall." The short, thin blonde woman behind the desk pointed down the long pathway. "Where else would he go?"

"Aw, shit," he grunted. "What is he, a world-class sprinter?!"

"He did seem like he was in a hurry," the secretary admitted. "What's the problem?"

"He...I need a serial number from him," he answered. "He wanted me to do a special service on a ship that's landing here later today, but he left before he could give me the serial." He scratched the back of his head, turning around to look down the hallway, hoping that Seth might realize his mistake and return at any moment.

"Do you want me to send an announcement through the airport?" she asked.

"Well, n-no, actually, I think we're fine," Phillipp finally settled on. "Uh, put down a flag for Cronus. It's his ship, he's on it, so as long as we see his name on the landing manifest we'll know that's the one." He turned back to his secretary. "Yes, flag all incoming landing manifests for Cronus's name, and direct that ship to A. Row four. And I want a cleaning crew waiting there when he lands, max treatment the moment he leaves the hangar."

"Got it," she said, beginning to tap her manicured fingernails against a large tablet screen on her desk.

"

"We had him," Tellu grumbled. "Had him dead to rights on Mars, all of them. One little bomb and all five of them would be at the bottom of a crater." She shook her head. Her and Ptilol were sitting next to each other at an empty bit of counter space in the left corner of the cabin of the space vessel that was currently speeding through vectors just beyond the asteroid belt. Each young woman had a large brown bowl of soup in front of them, and a large flat tablet was on the counter between them, lazily scrolling through assorted news headlines.

"Hey, look on the bright side," Ptilol reasoned. "It worked. We fed him a fake report for Cronus's location and he bit. He just managed to get out before Eudial could mop it up."

"It worked this time," Tellu countered, slowly running her large metal spoon through the thick yellow concoction in her bowl. "Who says that means it works the next time? Maybe he's onto us."

"What can he even do about it?" Ptilol pointed out, twirling her spoon around in her fingers. "He's the one with a time limit, not us. He's got no other option but to scrounge around for random tips and hope they pan out. Come on, we've got all the cards here, let's be positive."

"I feel like I've been living on B-class ships for the four cycles," Tellu said, casually glancing over the tablet as it continued to spit out the latest news updates from around the galaxy. "Really ready for this to be over so we can get back to our normal lives. I could use a week at a five star resort after this is over, living life on the run is no way to live." She scooped up a portion of soup and poured it back into the bowl. "Sick of eating soup all the time."

"I can agree with that," Ptilol admitted. "Sooner we stomp out that little pissant, the sooner we…"

The green-haired enforcer of Cronus gave Ptilol several beats to finish her sentence, but finally turned her focus away from her soup to see what had stalled her speech. Ptilol was staring down at the large tablet screen, her finger holding down on the center of the screen to get the rotating headlines to stop.

"What's the matter?" Tellu leaned over to look at what had caught her attention, eyes immediately bulging. "What the—"

 _BREAKING NEWS: Earth Prince Endymion makes surprise visit to Saturn; negotiations on alliance underway_

That headline was more than enough to get Tellu to drop her spoon to the floor in surprise. Both girls read the sentence over and over again, waiting for it to change into something they could better process. It took nearly a full secunda before they even proceeded beyond that headline.

"Extensive video evidence right outside the Saturn Palace hangar confirmed what had been heavily rumored earlier in the day," Ptilol started to recite. "Just secundas ago, a B-class starship bearing the Prince of Earth and two of his finest generals arrived on planet and parked within the palace. While his intention is not yet confirmed, many believe that the Kingdom of Earth has finally decided to offer their support to the Royal House of Saturn in their decade-long civil war with The Rings."

"What the hell?!" Tellu snapped. Ptilol rapidly tapped the center of the screen, getting a holographic projection of a video clip to start playing a couple finger-lengths in the air. Sure enough, Prince Endymion was clearly shown, flanked by Kunzite and Nephrite, with a collection of Saturn higher-ups in front of him, right in front of the exit ramp of a B-class starship.

"Are you shitting me?" Ptilol staggered to her feet, just missing knocking her bowl of soup over by the slightest of distances as she pushed herself away from the counter. She spun around and sprinted across the ship cabin, leaping over a couple crates of food on her way. A red steel door in the wall on the south side of the cabin was waiting for her, and before long she was slamming her palm up against the surface.

"Sir! Sir! We have a problem!" she yelled, before giving her head a shake to try to come to her senses, then moving over a step to the right to press a button on an intercom system. "Sir! Get out here, now! It's Endymion!"

It didn't take long for the pneumatic hiss of the door to sound off, and just like that, Cronus was entering the cabin, hair slightly ruffled and still in the process of putting on his overcoat.

"What, what?!" he snapped. "Is he dead?! Is he here?! Ptilol, you can't just say that without—"

"He's on Saturn," Ptilol immediately spit out, instinctively shrinking away from her boss, knowing that this was quite possibly the worst possible news she could be delivering to Cronus right now. "In the palace."

Cronus's mouth clapped closed at that proclamation, initially too stunned by what seemed to be a statement that couldn't possibly be true. He didn't even look upset or panicked.

"Excuse me?" Cronus asked.

"He's meeting with the whole regime on Saturn," Tellu followed up, standing up and hunching over the tablet, twisting her head to look at her boss. The hologram of the video was still playing beneath her upper body, and she quickly spun the tablet around so that it would be oriented towards Cronus. "They think he's negotiating an alliance for the war."

Cronus stared at the hologram, mouth beginning to fall back open again as he was confronted with video evidence of the absurd claim his lackeys were making.

"I...I don't understand," Ptilol managed to force out of her tight throat. "Why would he be going there and...and doing...this, right now?" She was afraid she already knew the answer.

"Gods," Cronus finally said. "He found out."

Never had Cronus sounded so shaken.

"He figured it out." He gave his head a tiny, slow shake, as if in disbelief, even as his words clearly showed he was not wasting any time thinking this was some sort of absurd coincidence.

"We—"

Cronus purposefully marched up towards the north end of the ship's cabin, pointing an emphatic finger at Tellu. "Call Eudial, tell her to drop everything immediately and meet us on Saturn!" he ordered.

Ptilol quickly fell into line a couple steps behind Cronus as he moved up towards the cockpit. "Sir, before we—"

"Mimas Airport," Cronus continued. "We can't go to the palace, if we call in to ask for permission we'll be letting Endymion know exactly when we're arriving in advance." He practically punched the button next to the cockpit door, prompting it to slide open.

"Sir, this is obviously what he wants!" Ptilol protested. "We should take a moment to think about this!"

"Of course he does," Cronus agreed, jumping into the pilot seat and rapidly beginning to plot out a new destination on the central computer. "What does it matter?"

"Well, he's probably trying to lead us into a trap!" Ptilol said. "Why else would he make sure the entire galaxy knows he's there?! He's probably—"

Cronus twisted his body around to look at Ptilol. "Ptilol, do you realize that if something happens to her, everything we've worked for this past decade will have meant nothing?! That I may as well have actually taken my own life when I abdicated the throne?!"

"Yes, but...nothing's going to happen to her! She's the Princess of one of the largest Kingdoms in the galaxy, he's not actually going to—"

Cronus turned back to his work programming a new destination on the center console. "What, exactly, do you think he has to lose?"

Ptilol blinked a couple times. "Sir, she's...barely even a teenager, he wouldn't."

The vessel was pulled out of jump speed in an instant, Cronus accomplishing the sudden halt by pulling back on a lever to the right of the center console. Immediately, the ship began to twist about in order to orient itself towards the new destination.

"Viluy was one thing, I'll...I'll admit that I didn't think he was capable of something like _that_ , but he wouldn't actually...at the very least, we shouldn't rush into this without a plan!" she insisted. "He's bluffing, he wants us to _think_ he might hurt her and act accordingly!"

"We have a plan," Cronus said simply, keeping an eye on the ship recalibrating a new route, beginning to engage another jump. "The plan is, we do whatever we have to do and say whatever we have to say to guarantee my daughter's safety. Then, and only then, do we assume that we can get through this without putting ourselves in some kind of danger. And only then do we try to assume what Endymion might or might not be capable of."

Ptilol got the picture that it was time to stop protesting. It wasn't exactly surprising that some degree of rational thought would go out the window in light of Cronus having the one thing he truly cared about threatened. She firmed her stance up a bit and nodded.

"Yes sir. We'll be ready for anything once we get to Saturn."

She glanced up over Cronus's shoulder as he manipulated commands on the center console, noting with some trepidation that his fingers were shaking a bit. She had seen small flashes of Cronus losing control in the past, but they were incredibly rare and often short-lived. This, however, felt like an extreme that she had never seen before.

"

Jadeite slowly peeked out from around the corner of the private hangar, squinting as he tried to quickly take in his surroundings. The massive, expansive tarmac went off in all directions in front of him, providing plenty of takeoff and landing space for the bevy of starships that would pass through the airport on a daily basis. He spied a massive commercial ship just a short distance away to his left, connected to the main airport building by means of a short tube. Off in the distance, he could see a few more similar-looking vessels in various stages of being loaded with passengers.

Fortunately, there were only a few scattered people on the tarmac. Employees of the airport, wearing sickly brown jumpsuits. Jadeite's outfit matched, at least enough to fool someone at a distance, which would hopefully be enough to excuse his presence. With a hurried, yet not quite panicked gait, he ran out in front of the hangar, making for the entrance, trying to get within the relative safety of the indoors as soon as possible.

Hangar A had only four occupied docking stalls at the moment out of a possible twelve, leaving plenty of open space in the large garage. A skeleton crew of half a dozen security guards were up on catwalks up near the ceiling. As Jadeite entered the hangar, he quickly used his powers to cause one of the giant light fixtures on the ceiling to swing upward on its chain, banging against the roof.

The attention of all the posted sentries was drawn, and Jadeite dashed for the nearest parked ship along the right side of the hangar, trying to keep his footsteps light. He slid across the concrete floor, managing to get underneath the wing on the wall-facing side of the ship, pressing himself up against the hull, finding Zoisite waiting for him right there. The rectangular green travel bag was laying at Zoisite's feet, still visibly packed to capacity.

"I was getting worried," Zoisite whispered as Jadeite kept ducked down, ears perked up to listen for any signs of his presence being suspected by the sentries up above.

"I didn't come straight here, I got a pretzel," Jadeite said quietly.

"Well, where's mine?" Zoisite asked. "You know, as long as you're putting this whole operation in danger, you might as well think about others."

"I'm not putting anything in danger," Jadeite protested, craning his head around the hull of the ship to look out at the main area of the hangar. "Cronus might be on the other side of the galaxy when he figures this out. We could be here for awhile, you know."

"Which row?" Zoisite asked.

"Four, like we planned," Jadeite answered, extending his right arm out and pointing at one of the empty spots across the garage. "You've got the departure schedules?"

"I can't shake the feeling that there had to be a better way than this," Zoisite mumbled to himself. "So much that we can't control."

"Seems to me we haven't been in control of anything for quite some time," Jadeite countered. "And yet, somehow, we're still alive."

"Luck is not a strategy," Zoisite insisted.

"Are you new around here or something?" Jadeite asked sarcastically.

"

"This is a big planet, don't try to tell me the entire thing has been depleted in a decade," Endymion said evenly. "Come on, I want to help you guys, but nothing's free."

The meeting room in the east wing of the Saturn Palace was a solid production, a rectangular room that was brilliantly sunlit via a series of large windows and mirrors, with a long oak table stretching across the center of it. The top left corner of the table was occupied by half a dozen tiered trays, each one bearing far too much food by itself for the current meeting participants.

Endymion was sitting right on the north side of that corner, Kunzite and Nephrite just behind him. The Saturn representatives were stacked up on the left side, with most of the table not being utilized due to there being less than ten people present.

Cassini was the closest to the Prince of Earth, with Dorus, Hyginos, Fotis, and Bion filling out the full representation of current political power on Saturn right behind him. Princess Saturn seemed to be an afterthought, sitting behind her aides, just silently trying to take in the back-and-forth.

"Uh, here we are." Dorus brought a hand-sized tablet up from his lap, passing it in front of Cassini. "Output of the pearl mine in sector eight over the last three years. That's, uh, the third largest producer of pearls on the planet."

"Not bad," Endymion said as Cassini slid the small tablet over in front of him. "Certainly of interest. But I understand you still have significant gas-based resources." He glanced down at the screen. "I'm a little more interested in those, personally."

The Prince's eyes darted around, first towards Princess Saturn, lingering on her for just a moment before acting as if he was just twisting his head around to look at his two generals to his left.

"R-right away, Your Majesty," Dorus said, reaching forward to grab the tablet out from in front of Endymion. "I'll pull those up, should just be a moment."

"I really hope my daughter is as well-behaved as you when she gets to be your age," Endymion said, smiling as he returned his look over to the teenage girl. "Are you playing a game underneath the table or something? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're actually interested by this discussion."

The Princess gave a pleasant smile, reaching up to adjust her tiara atop her head. "No, no, it's...it's good. This stuff is important to me! I'll be eighteen before I know it, I need to know all about these sorts of things."

"No, no, I agree," Endymion replied, looking back to Cassini, who looked almost scared as Endymion engaged in conversation with the Princess. "It's just, you're taking it remarkably well. I can assure you, most children your age wouldn't be able to sit still for half this long."

"I think it's interesting," Saturn reiterated.

Endymion carefully pried up his overcoat's right lapel, peering down underneath it, quickly making sure that the small gold paddle was still within his inner pocket. "Well, that's very good to hear."

"Uh, here's that...some mine output data," Dorus said meekly, holding the small tablet up again.

"Yes, yes, uh...Roxxas Gas!" Cassini said quickly, snatching the tablet out of Dorus's hand and bringing it to bear in front of the Prince. "As you can see, there's certainly going to be a surplus of this for centuries to come just from the surface mines, we can guarantee that."

"Well, then I imagine you'll have no issue sharing once the cannons cool off a bit," Endymion replied.

"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Zoisite said suddenly, getting down on all fours to peek out just beyond the hull of the starship he was still hiding behind. He and Jadeite had remained stationed here for several minutas now, nothing to do but stare at the grey-colored wall of the massive garage and make sure no part of their bodies were visible to the guards up above on the catwalks. Each secunda that ticked by made it more and more likely that their complicated plan would fail before it could even truly get started.

Perhaps their initial hypothesis was wrong, and that Cronus had no relation to Princess Saturn. Maybe Cronus wouldn't bite on the fairly obvious bait, and keep his distance even if it put her at risk. Or it could end up being as simple as them guessing incorrectly on one of the steps he would take on his rush back to Saturn to protect his progeny and being unable to reshape their plan to fit. Whatever the wrench in the plan ended up being, it seemed more and more likely it existed with each passing moment.

And then, Zoisite was reaching over, tapping Jadeite on the shoulder and spying a B-class cruiser coming through the entrypoint.

"Maybe?" Zoisite hissed under his breath. "Come on, come on."

"If it's not him, I'm going back inside and getting another pretzel," Jadeite grumbled, leaning up and watching the ship move towards the left side of the hangar.

They waited with baited breath as the ship slowed practically to a halt, and then gave a little burst to the side, slotting in one of the docking grooves with a gentle grinding sound. Sure enough, it was coming to rest in row four.

"Good afternoon, Mister Cronus," Jadeite whispered.

"Hold on," Zoisite instructed. "I'll believe it when…"

Mere beats after the engine of the newly-parked ship had turned off, the exit ramp dipped down off the back of the ship and down to the concrete floor. Both Earth generals only allowed themselves the briefest of glances at Cronus, sprinting down the ramp, before they both ducked back behind cover. It would be a true disaster to have this one-in-a-million plot foiled by something as amateur as Cronus spotting them in the hangar. They listened closely, hearing the racket of echoing footsteps as a small group of people dashed out of the hangar through the main entryway, Zoisite leaning out just in time to catch sight of their backsides as they disappeared out onto the tarmac.

"I saw three," he murmured. "There's supposed to be four, right?"

"Who cares, as long as one of them is him?" Jadeite countered, watching the other side of the hangar.

"I care!" Zoisite protested. "What good is all of this if we just end up leaving a loose end who can expose our crimes when this is over?"

"This mission was always going to have extracurricular cleanup," Jadeite pointed out. "Alright, here they come!"

"This must be the one!"

Ten men, each wearing the sickly brown uniforms that marked them as employees of the airport, were jogging over from the far side of the hangar.

"Okay, move it! Phillipp was insistent that this one was a rush!"

Jadeite ducked back down behind the ship hull, watching as Zoisite fumbled with a small tablet.

"Okay, let's pull it down off the dock, but don't scratch it! That ship belongs to _THE_ Cronus, as far as we're concerned it's made out of glass. I don't want to see any damage!"

"Perfect," Zoisite said, handing the the tablet over to Jadeite after getting it to display a three dimensional map of a large mansion. A red dot was pulsing on the left side of the schematic. "Alright, that's the meeting room. Do it!"

"I'm gonna need a little time here," Jadeite grunted, putting both of his index fingers up on his temples.

"We have a little time," Zoisite replied. "But not a lot."

"If I don't get the right tuning I'll just end up moving the table or...breaking a window," Jadeite said, voice slightly strained.

"Alright, just get it done," Zoisite said. Jadeite closed his eyes, trying to focus enough to mentally reach across a large distance.

"

Endymion concealed any sort of reaction as he finally felt it. The paddle in his inner overcoat pocket, gently but unmistakably moving, applying a light pressure to his chest, and then twisting to the left slightly. If anyone happened to be looking at the Prince's chest right at that moment, they'd just assume his jacket was shifting due to some subtle movement of his body that they couldn't see. But Endymion knew that the small toy in his pocket had been purposefully manipulated as a signal.

"...a sudden assault on sector eighteen originating from a point north-north-west would be devastating to The Rings. If you could commit maybe half-a-dozen well-equipped platoons to an attack there, it'd accomplish a lot."

"Well, I think we're about done here," Endymion announced.

"...hm?" Cassini questioned, immediately looking rather concerned that he had just said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry?"

"No, no, I don't mean anything bad. Quite the opposite," Endymion comforted. "We don't need to hash out every single detail right now. The way I see it, you've made it clear that you're willing to compensate the Earth for our help, and you've made it clear that what we have to offer you is going to prove valuable in ending this war. That's good enough for me."

"Uhhh...well, Your Highness, I appreciate you saying that," Cassini replied slowly. "It's good you feel that way, but I wanted to review a few more current battlefield statuses first, just so you know exactly what you're getting involved in."

"I've seen enough," Endymion insisted, rising to his full height. "I get the picture, Cassini. And you can count on the Earth's assistance in expediting the end of this war, contingent on one thing."

"Uh, one thing?" Cassini repeated, getting up to his feet as well, nervously fumbling his fingers along the pinned medals on his chest. "What do you mean?"

Endymion extended his left arm out in an unfurling motion, gesturing it over towards Princess Saturn. "I'd like to speak with her, alone."

Cassini blanched, eyes bulging a bit.

"Not for very long, nothing technical, I just need to confirm some things with her, and I'd like it to be one-on-one."

"I-I...I don't understand," Cassini said, glancing nervously over at the Princess, whose expression was somewhere between surprise and excitement. "There's...really not anything she could tell you that we can't. Whatever it is that you feel you need to...confirm with her, should really run through me, Your Highness."

"I can understand why you might think that, but the reality is, she's ultimately going to be the one who has to keep these promises," Endymion said. "I want to speak to her, without her aides present."

"Ummm...alright, I suppose so," Cassini relented, which was enough of a prompt to get Princess Saturn to her feet. "There's a break room right across the hall, you two could—"

"Not here," Endymion interrupted. "Not in this palace. I want a more neutral site."

Cassini's face fell.

"My ship will do. Off-planet," Endymion continued, maintaining an almost menacing stoicism. "In orbit."

"Your Majesty—" Fotis interjected, only to immediately be prompted to silence by Cassini's open palm.

"Uh, I'm afraid I don't understand the need, w-what could you possibly need to discuss with her that you can't do on Saturn?!" Cassini asked, sounding wildly uncomfortable and starting to lose his composure.

"I just don't believe any large-scale agreement should be negotiated entirely on one party's territory," Endymion said cryptically. "And I want to hear her answers far away from people who might be influencing her."

"Alright, to the hangar!" Princess Saturn called out, sounding as if she thought nothing of the request.

"WAIT! Wait, wait!" Cassini called out, turning around and holding his arm out towards the Princess. "Just...Your HIghness, could we…" he gestured over towards the vacated northwest corner of the room, shuffling over towards it. Endymion relented, following.

"Your Highness, I…" Cassini spoke in hushed tones now, trying to keep their conversation between the two of them only. "I can assure you, I'm the highest power in this Kingdom right now. She—"

"You've made that very clear already," Endymion cut him off. "I understand how the power structure is here, but I need to talk to her, and I need it to be on my terms. You can't give me the assurance that I need."

"She...doesn't leave the palace very often," Cassini whispered. "A-assorted reasons, safety chief among them, she actually doesn't have much..experience on starships, much less without any of her aides present. I'd really, really prefer that we found another way to—"

"Well, my ship is top-of-the-line and one of the smoothest rides in the galaxy, so there's no better place for her to start getting a little experience," Endymion deftly deflected, starting to lose the last bits of his casual and light demeanor. "And I won't go any further than orbit above Saturn. Cassini, I want us to be friends, but I'm going to be blunt, this isn't something that can be negotiated. Me and my generals are about to head down to the hangar to board my ship. Either Princess Saturn will be accompanying us, or this meeting never happened and you get to spend the rest of your day explaining to her why this war is going to end in three years instead of six cycles."

Cassini closed his eyes, exhaling loudly. "Your Highness, I—"

"Kunzite, Nephrite," Endymion called out, a final hard glare given at Cassini before he began to take large strides away from him. "We're going."

"And the Princess will be right behind you!" Cassini forced out loudly.

Immediately, Endymion's stiff gait seemed to suddenly loosen up, and he cast a warm smile over towards Princess Saturn. It felt like the room had suddenly brightened a shade as Endymion's gruff edge dulled.

"I'll be waiting, then," he said, pointing over at Princess Saturn. "We'll have fun, my ship's great, I promise."

Cassini held a pasted-on smile as the Prince and his two-person entourage moved to depart the room, just managing the hold back the obvious external signs of stress. Indeed, all the adult members of the Saturn royal chain of command looked rather concerned.

The moment the Earth Prince left the meeting room for the outside hall, Cassini discarded his disingenuous smile. "Gods!" he snapped, right hand reaching up to rub at his forehead.

"I'll be fine!" Princess Saturn said, taking her tiara off and running her fingers through her black hair.

"You have no way of knowing that!" Cassini retorted. "You haven't been on a starship in nearly a decade, these are _not_ the circumstances under which I wanted to introduce you to it!"

"This is going to save billions of lives, I think it's worth me potentially being uncomfortable for a few secundas," Saturn argued.

Cassini grumbled. "Royal eccentrics," he hissed to himself. "Negotiated entirely on one party's territory, have you ever heard of such a thing?" He stalked over towards Princess Saturn. "Alright, Your Highness, just listen to me carefully. Try to not look too long at any of the lights inside his ship, they're going to be a lot more intense than the ones you're used to. Don't look out any windows after the ship takes off."

He pulled a small black tube out of his left tunic pocket, pointing one end of it right at Princess Saturn's face and twisting the other end gently. A puff of purple smoke flew right into her nose. She purposefully inhaled it.

"If he offers you any food or drink, say you're not hungry. And whatever it is he wants, just try to give it to him as fast as possible so you can get back down here."

The Princess was immune to his rather dour fear-mongering, however, seemingly just happy that for once she had an opportunity to actually contribute to the war effort in a meaningful way.

"I won't let us down!" she said energetically, bringing her right arm up to her forehead in a mock salute. Cassini could only give an exasperated sigh.

"

Zoisite reached his left hand over to tap Jadeite on the shoulder, weaving his small arm through the bramble-like bush that the two Earth generals were using to conceal themselves. Now just a few dozen paces north of Hangar A, giving themselves a nice view of the entire tarmac. The green travel bag was right next to Jadeite, waiting to play its part in this complex maneuver.

"That's it, that's it!" Zoisite called out, pointing over to the left, at an elongated trolley hovering a little above the concrete of the tarmac, made up of half-a-dozen connected carts linked together, loaded to capacity with various luggage containers. It was puttering towards a large F-class starship, parked up against the side of the airport boarding lobby.

Jadeite, a pair of black binoculars up on his eyes, narrowed his focus onto the luggage trolley. With a flick of his left index finger, several of the containers fell off the left side of the trolley, scattering around on the tarmac, one of the suitcases popping open.

"What the fu—" The man driving the trolley startled up from the front seat and spun around, quickly spotting the mess and jamming down on the brake to stop the cart. "Damnit!"

The rest of his annoyed expletives, Zoisite and Jadeite could only guess, as they were too far away to hear anything else. The man jumped out of the driver's seat and began the task of reloading the luggage.

"Alright, alright," Zoisite said quietly, scanning the surrounding area with his own pair of binoculars. "Someone's working on the control panel by station three, distract him."

Jadeite quickly found the mechanic with his field glasses, raising his left index finger straight up into the air. The control panel lid suddenly slammed down on his fingers as he was reaching in to manipulate the wires, drawing a cry of pain from him. As he crouched over in mild agony, Zoisite pulled a black tube from his chest pocket.

"Now!" As he pressed the top of the tube with the pad of his thumb, Jadeite raised his left hand up and sent the green case speeding over towards the trolley, skating silently across the ground.

They only had one shot at this. Cronus had no doubt arrived at the palace by now, figured out one way or another that Endymion had absconded with Princess Saturn, and was now trying to get back to his ship as fast as he could. If they had estimated times properly, he'd be here in a matter of secundas. The case had to be aboard that F-class ship by the time he showed up and found out his ship was gone.

Just as the trolley driver was begrudgingly finishing his cleanup task, the green container came to rest right next to the back right corner of the long cart. With a final twitch of Jadeite's fingers, a few of the luggage pieces on this back corner fell off the trolley as well, on top of his.

"Son of a bitch!" the driver cried as he heard yet another part of his cart overflow. "The hell's going on here?!"

"I think that worked," Zoisite said, unable to hide the fact that he was shocked. Jadeite carefully rolled over onto his back and exhaled deeply, worn out by the rapid-fire series of psychic tricks he had had to pull off today. "Wow, I...that worked!"

"You sound surprised," Jadeite mumbled.

"I am!" Zoisite admitted, still keeping close tabs on the angry driver as he tossed the luggage back on board. "This is...this might actually work!"

"Out of our hands now," Jadeite said.

"Good job, by the way," Zoisite commended. "Yeah, he loaded our case on the trolley, didn't think anything of it, we're good!"

Jadeite opened his eyes again. "If the cameras didn't get interfered with properly, it's not getting anywhere near that ship."

"Don't worry about the cameras, I'm positive I got them," he answered. "Oh, he's here!"

Zoisite twisted his body around to orient himself to look to the right, over towards Hangar A. He focused his binoculars over towards the scene fast developing right in front of it. Cronus was giving a bewildered look inside the large garage, no doubt discovering his ship was not where he had left it. He held a small grey pistol in his right hand, and was swinging it around emphatically to express his anger and rage as he yelled at someone. His jacket was smeared with blood.

Tellu had a short, young-looking man in a headlock, his face smeared with blood. She was pressing a black handgun right into the man's temple. Ptilol was bearing a large plasma rifle that was strapped over her shoulder. Eudial, who had apparently joined the proceedings somewhere around the palace, had a bloodied hostage of her own, hand wrapped around his collar tightly and a pistol to the back of his head.

"He's got another woman with him!" Zoisite said breathlessly. "Remember, there was supposed to be a third one? She's there! We're going to get all of them!"

No less than twenty palace guards were in formation, each one with a plasma rifle pointed at Cronus and his lackeys, half making up the front row and the other half over the front row's shoulders. Each time Cronus's crew moved a step towards the hangar entrance, the guards moved to keep pace, but resisted the temptation to open fire or get too close due to the hostage situation. A couple of airport employees were also present, talking to Cronus, clearly trying to calm him down.

"He's got hostages!" Zoisite whispered. "Jadeite, you've got to see this, half the royal palace guard is pointing guns at him! He's completely lost his mind!"

"Umm...Zoisite?"

The small blond Earth general's giddiness was nipped in the bud at the sound of Jadeite's unease, and Zoisite looked over. "What?"

"Um…" He slowly pointed up at the F-class starship over on the other side of the tarmac. The first thing Zoisite took note of was that the trolley was now completely empty, having loaded everything onto the cargo hold of the vessel, but in the next instant he realized that the tube connecting the ship to the airport building had been extended out.

"Shit," Zoisite hissed.

"How long do you think we have?" Jadeite asked.

"Not long enough," Zoisite answered, turning back around just in time to see Cronus slug the airport employee in the face.

"What do we do?" Jadeite rubbed his left temple, weighing the possibility that he could damage the boarding tube from here. "Maybe I could detach it, make it fall."

"No, no, not from this distance, you don't even know how the tunnel is attached," Zoisite dismissed quickly. "I...I don't know. Just...don't do anything." He turned back to spy on Cronus. "Come on, come on, come on. Hurry up."

"

"I didn't ask for my ship to be washed, get it out here now!" Cronus snapped, drawing up to his full height in an attempt to further intimidate the hangar manager.

"S-sir, no problem at all, just give us a minuta, at most!" he replied, turning around and trying to scurry off.

"What do you mean, a minuta?!" Cronus roared, face sweating and eyes bulging.

"Sir, put the weapon down and instruct these two to release those men!" one of the palace guards yelled, somehow managing to sound steady and professional despite the absurd sight of someone like Cronus having such an over-the-top public meltdown and brandishing a weapon. "We can talk about this, but only—"

"Shut up!" Cronus snapped. "And stay back!" He kept his death glare focused right on the hangar manager. "What do you mean?!"

"It's...it's getting the full treatment, the whole engine's going to be flooded right now, we have to dry it out, it won't be flight-ready for—"

Cronus's audible seething ended that explanation. Immediately, the pharmaceutical Kingpin took a couple steps towards the manager, who jumped back, expecting to be on the receiving end of another physical assault, but Cronus instead pointed at one of the other parked ships within Hangar A.

"Get that one down and start it, then," he ordered through gritted teeth.

"U-uh...sir, we don't have the starter keys for any of those, they're private!" the manager protested, wincing as he expected another violent reaction from Cronus. "We'd have to hotwire it, it wouldn't take any less time, we—"

Cronus could have been exhaling out lava. Luckily, instead of taking it out on the hangar manager, he instead decided to focus his efforts on solving the issue at hand. He spun around, still brusquely ignoring the squadron of heavily-armed soldiers who were pointing their weapons right at him, trusting that they wouldn't actually put the lives of the hostages at risk. Quickly, he found the nearest visible ship, an F-class passenger vessel parked up against the side of the airport building.

"That one, then," he demanded. "That one's ready to fly, isn't it?!"

"U-uh...sir, that's a commercial ship, holds nearly six hundred passengers, you can't honestly—"

Cronus lunged forward and grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him close. "Either it'll be over your dead body, or it won't, but I'm commandeering that ship, right now."

Tossing the man to the concrete tarmac carelessly, he took off in a sprint towards the ship. Tellu, Ptilol, and Eudial attempted to follow, but it was a rather awkward endeavor due to the need to maintain hold of their hostages and keep the squad of soldiers from getting an obvious opening to shoot them.

"Alright, alright!" the hangar manager called out, scrambling to his feet and breaking into a dead run in an attempt to catch up. "Just give me a little time to evacuate the passengers—"

"I don't have any time!" Cronus yelled. "And neither will you, if I'm not able to board that vessel! Get the ground-level doors open!"

The manager gave up the pursuit, slowing to a halt to watch, wishing he was able to appreciate the comedy in the sight of so many uniformed soldiers awkwardly pursuing Cronus. With a huff, he pulled a communicator off his belt and lifted it to his mouth.

"Code eight-five-four, we have a hostage situation. Open the ground-level doors on _The Bulg_ immediately," he panted out. "Repeat, eight-five-four, hostage situation. Open the ground-level doors on _The Bulg_."

"

"You haven't met my daughter, have you?" Endymion asked, crouching down slightly to be on Princess Saturn's level, while also allowing himself to be in very close proximity to her. "She's a good deal younger than you, of course, but I'd love for her to take after you."

"I...I haven't been outside the palace since I can remember," Saturn admitted, blushing slightly.

The two royals were crowded together on the aft side of Endymion's personal vessel, Saturn seated on a cushioned stool, hands on her knees and back straight.

"Oh, that won't do," Endymion said charmingly. "You've got to get out sometimes, see the galaxy. Don't let that Cassini guy boss you around, you know he works for you. If you give him an order, he'll follow it."

"Well...sort of," Saturn said.

While Saturn's dark purple gown looked good on her, contrasting with her pale skin in an eye-catching manner, it's relative simplicity, as well as her shoes not having elevated heels, betrayed a humble delicacy of the girl that, no matter how much her aides tried to hide, Endymion was easily able to pick up on. He had noticed her grip her gown rather tightly when the ship jumped up to high speeds in order to get into orbit, and even now she seemed focused on trying to keep as still as possible. Endymion, of course, had no ill will towards the girl, and took no pleasure in causing her any degree of discomfort, so the sooner he could get her back in her palace, the better.

"Anyway, Princess, to business," Endymion said. Saturn was quick to wipe the playful smile off her face. "I wanted you here because I have a simple question. And I really need to see how _you_ answer it. Not...not any of your aides or assistants or helpers. You specifically."

She nodded, putting a determined look on her face.

"Five years from now, your life is going to be great," Endymion continued. "This war will seem like a bad dream, things will be cleaned up, Saturn will be a superpower, flush with money and resources. You'll take the throne, a beautiful young woman with her whole life in front of her. And you'll be the one in charge." He crouched down in front of her again. "And when that happens, Princess, I want to know if you're going to remember the people who helped you when things didn't look so good."

"O-oh, of course!" Princess Saturn emphatically answered, nodding. "Your Highness—"

"And none of that 'Your Highness' nonsense, thank you," Endymion chided.

"...E-Endymion. I know how to be appreciative and grateful. If you need any proof of that, just ask the countless heroes who have served on the side of the Saturn royal house over the last ten years. I've personally insisted that they all be commended, awarded, and recognized for their efforts. I know the cost of this war. I'm told about it every day. Cassini tells me I shouldn't insist on being informed about it, says I'm too young to be thinking about things like this. But I think it's important for me to know what this is costing us, who it's hurting. I know that if the Earth offers their assistance in ending it, the lives that will be saved are too numerous to count. And I know that we will owe you a debt that we'll never truly be able to repay. But, when this is all over, I give my word that I'll do everything I can to try."

Endymion gave her a warm smile, reaching up to rub the top of her head. "That's very good, Princess. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

She beamed up at him.

"You're going to be a wonderful Queen, you know," Endymion added, looking over his shoulder at the otherwise-empty cabin. "Could you...wait right here, please? I need to have a word with my generals in the cockpit."

"Mmhmm," she replied, relaxing fractionally and allowing her posture to ease. Endymion quickly cross the room, absentmindedly tugging on his collar as he approached the cockpit door. Everything they had spent this day working towards was about to either bear fruit or blow up in his face, with no middle ground.

With a tight tap of his finger on the pad right next to the cockpit door, it slid open, both of his strongest generals slowly spinning around in their passenger seat.

The front window was pointed down towards the planet Saturn, with quite a few other ships and satellites in orbit visible through the view portal. Endymion briefly scanned it.

"Well?" he asked.

"We've got him," Kunzite answered. Without looking, he reached behind him and tapped one of the red buttons on the center console. A small red dot started to flash on the windshield, indicating an approaching ship. " _The Bulg_ was not scheduled to take off for another two minutas, and it's destination is Uranus, so it should be headed towards the other side of the planet." He pointed at the red dot. "And here it is, already in the air, approaching us. Only one reason why that would be the case."

Endymion slowly puffed out a large breath, then broke into a cocky smile.

"There's one problem," Kunzite added. "The ship must have started to board before Cronus commandeered it. The scan shows about twelve life forms aboard, so there are some civilians."

Endymion nodded. "I didn't expect everything to go completely perfect," he admitted.

"We're still a go?" Kunzite asked, eyes trained closely on Endymion as he reacted to this bit of bad news.

"That depends," Endymion replied dryly. "Do you have another idea that can guarantee Cronus's death, with no collateral damage at all, that we can execute in the next three minutas?"

Kunzite sighed, gritting his teeth. "Very well."

Endymion put his right hand on his hip, staring out at the faint outline of the approaching F-class vessel, getting larger with each passing moment in the window.

"Any time," Endymion said softly.

"

Cronus roughly untangled his tie from around his neck, ripping the decorative piece of clothing off and using it to wipe the beading sweat off his forehead. He grunted, shaking his head around, then giving a wild-eyed look at the main control console of _The Bulg_.

He had never personally flown a ship of this size, and his current mental state was not particularly good for attempting to learn something on the fly. The panel was much bigger than he was used to, with controls he didn't understand the purpose of, so it was all he could do to figure out the basics of moving and stopping.

"What the hell is he up to?!" he snapped to himself, reaching forward towards the integrated communicator and spamming his right index finger on one of the buttons repeatedly.

A completely useless effort, and he knew it, but he was mad enough to continue to try. He was certain that Endymion's ship had received his previous eight attempts at a hail and had purposefully declined all of them, so there was no reason for them to suddenly answer his ninth. Yet, somehow, he felt compelled to keep trying. All it was doing was increasing the intense rage he felt, which could very well have been the reason why he kept doing it.

"Come on, what do you want?!" he continued to mutter to himself. He could see the B-class luxury cruiser on his display, not too far away now, simply floating in orbit. He was right there, with her. He was in a ship well over a hundred times larger than his. And yet, he was still struggling to come up with a way to turn the situation to his favor. What could he do that _wouldn't_ just endanger his daughter?

He whipped his tie across the cockpit, unsatisfied with the soft little thud of it hitting the wall, wishing he had something of weight and substance to throw in frustration. Now that he was so close, yet so far away from what he wanted, he started to feel the uncomfortable weight of having no real plan. He hadn't thought past this point. The best he could come up with was to negotiate. Here he was, out in the open, on a ship that he had never seen before today, and he didn't even know what he was doing.

Just as he was starting to consider his actions of the last few minutas, his mad rush to Saturn, scramble to the palace, violent confrontation with the guards and secretaries in the palace, dash back to the airport, and desperate theft of this massive passenger ship, and just as he began to think there might have been a better course of action if he had thought things through more, it happened. Too fast for him to really process. Every single alarm on the center console went off at once, a series of bright red lights and an ear-piercing ring. And immediately following that, the cockpit was effectively blasted open.

The explosion had started in the cargo hold, instantly disintegrating every bit of luggage and blowing through the walls like they were tissue paper. The destructive blast ripped through the hull along the bottom of the ship and spread rapidly through the passenger cabin, immolating everything in a flash. The central computing unit of the ship had just enough time to complain about the sudden countless hull breaches before it, too, was destroyed by the eruption.

Cronus had just enough time to be shocked. Enough for his mouth to open with a shocked yell, but not enough to actually yell. The explosion swallowed him up, same as it had his three trusted underlings and assorted handful of hostages.

The King of the Underworld was dead.


	48. Long Live The King

Chapter 48: Long Live The King

A brilliant orange burst consumed the distant freighter, blowing it into pieces that began to float and tumble in assorted directions. Endymion just watched the chaotic scene, a serene and peaceful smile on his face.

"Scan is clean," Nephrite reported. "No life forms detected. Nobody aboard survived."

Kunzite gave a moaning sigh, leaning forward and slouching, pressing his forehead against the side wall of the cockpit. He closed his eyes, visibly exhausted.

The trio just hung there in silence for several long beats, soaking in the gravity of what they had just managed to accomplish and the massive shockwaves that were about to be felt through the galaxy.

"The job isn't done," Kunzite said wearily, finally opening his eyes. "After we drop the Princess off, we'll have to work quickly to destroy any evidence that can connect us to him."

"You're sure we got him?" Endymion asked, sounding oddly at peace, with his carefree, casual, light tone.

"I, I was watching the scans as the explosion went off," Nephrite assured him. "Either it's the most bizarre coincidence of all time, or everyone on that ship is dead."

"We'll drop the Princess off and pick Jadeite and Zoisite up," Endymion continued. "On the way back, we'll destroy the lab. Once news of Cronus's death is made official, they'll comb through all of his properties and assets and find it." He cleared his throat. "Nephrite, I trust that your men have been mopping up the final collections and payouts on Earth?"

"We're on schedule," Nephrite answered.

"Then everyone start practicing how you're going to act around father when we get back to the palace tonight," Endymion said simply, turning around and confidently striding towards the cockpit door.

The door whisked open and the Crown Prince stepped through, immediately meeting the gaze of Princess Saturn.

"Everything alright?" she asked timidly.

"More than alright," Endymion said warmly, giving a comforting smile at her. "Princess Saturn, thank you so much for meeting with me here. You've made things so much easier for me today. I owe you."

"I...I haven't done anything," the small Princess answered, reaching up to scratch at her cheek bashfully.

"You've done more than you know," Endymion replied simply, again crouching right in front of her. He smoothly inserted his right hand into his side pants pocket and withdrew an egg-shaped object, most of it golden in color with tiny silver threads weaving along the surface, perfectly cut and sized rubies placed in perfect symmetry inbetween the weaving threads. A tiny golden hinge allowed the egg to open up at the center. "I want you to have this."

Saturn's eyes went wide at the sight of the attention-grabbing object in Endymion's fingers, and he extended it out towards her. Carefully, she took it in her much smaller hands, cautiously handling it.

"A hundred of these were made four centuries ago by a master craftsman on Earth. Some of our most cherished precious artifacts. Let's call it a symbol of our cooperation," Endymion explained.

"Oh, are you sure?" Saturn exclaimed, eyes clearly brightening as she examined the egg, rotating it around between her thumb and index finger.

"I just don't want to see it being auctioned off next cycle," he said, winking. "Alright, let's get you home."

"

Kasios was captivated by the large hologram projector propped up against the back wall of the main room of the bunker. The projected video was clearly depicting an explosion in space, filmed from a nearby satellite by coincidence, the distance making details impossible to make out. The imperfect footage had been replayed a thousand times already on every news network in the galaxy, yet remained captivating.

In the beats following the initial explosion, the violent fiery eruption faded enough for loose pieces of a large spaceship to start floating in various directions, making it clear that the eruption had come from an F-class starship. Not too long after this became evident did the video clip start from the beginning again.

This was shocking enough, as ship accidents of this magnitude hardly ever happened anymore. In fact, in order for something like this to happen given recent technological advances, there pretty much had to be some form of maliciousness involved. However, that wasn't even close to the most shocking part of this accident.

On the hologram, there was a massive headline right underneath the replaying video. It was such a shocking proclamation that it demanded to be read multiple times, and then be questioned and verified. The effects that the proclamation would have on the entire galaxy were impossible to be quantified right now. It could be years before the true fallout could be calculated.

 _COMMERCIAL AIRSHIP BULG EXPLODES OVER SATURN, ESTIMATED DEATH TOLL 15, SORANUS HEAD AND CEO CRONUS AMONG CASUALTIES_

"What is happening with the universe?!" Queen Serenity muttered, leaning up from behind the couch over Kasios's shoulder, where the High King was seated. "People trying to kill you, people killing Cronus, where did all this come from?!"

"Gods," Kasios said throatily.

"By the way, if somebody can kill Cronus, they can kill your son," Serenity continued. "So, again, can we get him here?! Why is he even on Saturn anyway? Negotiating an alliance, like he couldn't do that in a few days?!" She gave Kasios a bit of a dirty look. "Did _you_ put him up to that?"

"Serenity, Serenity, please, I...I'm processing this right now," Kasios grunted. "And no, I didn't tell Endymion to do anything, he...I don't know why he went to Saturn right now, we'll ask him about that when he gets back."

"C-calm down, Mom," the younger Serenity said quietly, slouched down on one of the side chairs in the main room, also watching the repeated video clip on the projector. "We don't even know if someone killed Cronus, this could have been an accident."

"No, no," Kasios dismissed immediately. "This was intentional. Explosions like that don't just happen anymore."

"What was he doing on a commercial airship?" Queen Serenity continued to question in rapid-fire speech. "They said...it was a flight to Uranus, right? He has his own ship, obviously, right?!"

"There's obviously a lot we don't know right now," Kasios said, still speaking in a slight monotone due to shock. "But someone killed him. And I think we're lucky that they did."

"I...excuse me?" Queen Serenity questioned. "What's that supposed to mean? If Soranus dissolves it'll be terrible for the galactic economy, how is this good for anyone?!"

"I don't think this is a coincidence." He shook his head. "I think Cronus was there for Endymion." He suddenly rocketed up to his feet. "Gods, I need to get up to _The Savery_ , this is about to get big."

"What does any of this have to do with the agency?!" Queen Serenity asked. "You're not going anywhere right now, are you insane?! None of us are going anywhere until we have absolute confirmation that nobody is trying to kill you!"

"Somebody _was_ trying to kill me," Kasios said, sweeping around the couch and storming over towards the primary doors of the bunker.

"Well...wait, what is that supposed to mean?" Queen Serenity asked.

"Can you two keep it down a little?" Princess Serenity asked, tossing a glance over her shoulder towards one of the side doors leading to the secondary chambers. "I just got her down not that long ago."

"Kasios, you said...you said this assassination thing was a hoax!" Queen Serenity said, quickly chasing the High King over as he peeled a small section of the panel next to the massive steel doors back. "You said you were sure—"

"Open the doors!" Kasios said loudly through a round speaker behind the wall panel he had just opened up.

"Wait, wait!" the Queen insisted. "Kasios, you are _not_ going out there after saying something like that!"

Kasios sighed loudly, putting his mouth back up close to the speaker. "Cancel that order, just...hold on." He sealed the panel shut again, turning around to face Serenity. "It _was_ a hoax, but somebody was still trying to kill me. It just wasn't the federation. I'm guessing that the whistleblower wanted to put me on alert but wasn't willing to name the actual person behind the scheme."

Princess Serenity kept watching the repeating video clip, so obsessed with trying to act as if she wasn't overly interested in what Kasios was saying that she was probably taking it too far in the other direction, suspiciously _un_ interested in what he was saying.

"So someone _is_ trying to kill you?" Queen Serenity said incredulously.

"No, was," Kasios corrected. He pointed over at the hologram across the room. "He's not trying to kill me anymore, the mangled remains of his corpse are currently orbiting around Saturn. It was Cronus who was after me."

Queen Serenity's face contorted in a rather unpleasant look of shock. "Have you lost your mind?!"

"Uhh…" Kasios gave a couple evasive looks to his left and right. "I guess it doesn't matter now, he's dead. I was keeping this quiet for obvious reasons, but the last couple cycles, I've been investigating Cronus. B-By myself, nobody else saw things my way, but I've suspected for some time now that he's the largest imperium smuggler in the galaxy." He put his hand out towards the Moon Queen. "I know, I know, it's out there, and believe me, if you think that's insane, pretty much everyone in the galaxy is with you."

"Well, insane's a pretty good word for it," Serenity replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Kasios, think about what you're saying here, Cronus was probably the wealthiest and most powerful person in the galaxy who wasn't either a royal or Grandmaster of the agency, what interest would he have in imperium smuggling?"

"Believe me, I've thought about it a lot. And either way, I think I've just been proven correct." He gestured again over at the hologram.

"He died in an explosion, how does that prove anything?" the Queen asked.

"It's not the explosion," Kasios answered. "Maybe it is, I don't...that's why I need to get out of here so I can start looking into this. But think about it. Cronus gets wind of me investigating him, and maybe I got too close for comfort. Obviously, I'm doing this without the agency's backing, so he probably thinks that the investigation would die with me. But then he can't get to me in here, so he goes after my son. That's why he was there."

"Then...then who killed him?" Queen Serenity asked.

Kasios hesitated to reply, brow furrowing. "I'm still trying to figure that out, but...rival smugglers? That's my first guess."

"How did you even _get_ to thinking something like this?" Serenity asked. "And what do you mean, without the agency's backing?"

"L-Look, Serenity, I don't want to get into the whole thing right now." He pointed up towards the ceiling. "I need to get out of here, get up there so I can get out in front of this. If I'm right, the answers should come pouring out when Cronus's life gets dissected, I want the agency on top of this from the start."

"Can't you work out of the palace?!" Queen Serenity asked, putting her arms out to her sides. "Your son still isn't here, you know. And even if you're right, that doesn't guarantee the danger has passed."

Slowly, Kasios exhaled, face wrinkling up in annoyance. "Where...where is that kid?" He sidestepped past the Queen, quickly striding over towards the large communicator that was perched on the corner of one of the end tables.

"Finally! Some urgency!" the Queen remarked as Kasios wrapped his long fingers around the device and started fumbling with the dials along the sides of the rim.

"

Nephrite and Kunzite blinked rapidly as the massive arrangement of light fixtures on the ceiling of the large laboratory roared to life. The secret chamber where the Earth Prince and general had done much of their work over the last year was fully revealed. Despite the massive amounts of chaos that had occurred in the outside world over the last few minutas, everything here looked just as it had pretty much every previous time Kunzite had come here to work, as if nothing had changed.

"This isn't what I was picturing," Nephrite admitted. Both he and Kunzite had their hair tucked up underneath wigs, as well as padding underneath their clothes to alter their body shapes. Kunzite quickly jogged across the catwalk, moving with urgency that Nephrite quickly matched.

"We need to move quickly," Kunzite said, practically sliding down the spiral staircase. Nephrite followed close behind. "I doubt High King Kasios's patience will last much longer, he must be paying attention to the news."

"This is bigger than I thought," Nephrite mused. "How are we going to destroy this without bringing the whole building down?"

"Who gives a damn about the building?" Kunzite asked.

"Well, we're currently both _inside_ the building, so I care about it for at least as long as it takes for us to get out," Nephrite said uneasily.

"Don't worry, we won't be causing an explosion," Kunzite said, going over to the west wall of the lab, towards a large red emergency locker built into the wall. "A fire should give the whole building plenty of time to evacuate, including us. Decent chance it'll be put out before it can even bring the building down."

Kunzite ripped the locker open, revealing a plethora of emergency supplies, including a few canisters of fire extinguishers, a couple dozen jars of industrial disinfectant, and a couple of large red axes. Kunzite grabbed both of these imposing bladed weapons by the neck and pulled them out.

"The black barrels," Kunzite said, pointing the head of the axe in his right hand over towards the south side of the room, where a few dozen large barrels were stacked. "Soak the entire room." With that, he tossed one of the axes over towards Nephrite, who easily caught it.

The two young men quickly crossed over to where the collection of large containers were arranged. With a quick windup, Kunzite brought a powerful blow into the side of the closest barrel, gashing a cut right into it. A powerful flood of fluid sprayed from the hole, spilling out onto the concrete floor, rapidly spreading out across it.

Nephrite knocked one of the barrels off the top of a stack, placing it on it's side. With an overhead strike, he drove the blade of the axe into the metal container, easily penetrating the shell. He then kicked his foot right into the barrel, sending it rolling across the laboratory's floor, spilling large amounts of fluid as it spun about.

Kunzite was just about to pierce another one, when he stopped at the peak of his windup and dropped the axe to his side. He quickly pivoted around and ran over towards the large center vat. Nephrite stopped as well just as he was about to grab another barrel.

"Something the matter?" Nephrite asked, holding the axe up on his shoulder.

"No, I just don't want to forget." Kunzite circled around the vat until he got to one of the outer knobs, which had a thick piece of white rope loosely wrapped around it, each end of the rope attached to a painted wooden sphere, one designed to resemble the Earth and the other mimicking the Moon. Kunzite grabbed the trinket and shoved it inside his overcoat.

"Never took you for the sentimental type," Nephrite muttered, slamming the axe's business end into the top of one of the barrels, then picking it up by the base.

"Trust me, it's not me," Kunzite grumbled. Nephrite went over to a nearby stretch of counter space, flipping the barrel upside down and pouring the contents out the hole onto it.

"

The secret laboratory was now completely covered in the clear fluid, the entire concrete floor surfaced with a puddle of it, and every single bit of counter space and all the lab materials and equipment drenched in it as well. The state-of-the-art technological wonder had been turned into a tinderbox, just waiting for a spark.

Kunzite and Nephrite had just left, leaving their clothes behind in a heap on the catwalk, as they now reeked of boron crystal fluid, with a change of clothes waiting for them just outside the door. The messy pile of clothes had been set aflame, slowly being consumed entirely by a dancing fire, which was also the only light source in the room now.

It took only a secunda or two for all of the garments to be burnt beyond recognition. Resting on the metal grating of the catwalk, it didn't take long for small burning flecks of the fabric to start falling through and fluttering down to the lab beneath. In an almost haunting dance, several tiny flames zigzagged down.

The moment the first flame won the race down and touched the fluid, a massive plume spread from the point of contact in all directions, consuming everything in a matter of beats. The entire laboratory was covered in flames, a particularly hot bonfire that immediately started melting everything.

"

Kunzite pulled the earpiece out of his right ear canal. "Fire alarm just sounded, it worked."

"The High King sounded concerned," Zoisite said. "Maybe even agitated. It'd be a real shame if _this_ is what popped the bubble."

"We all knew he'd have some questions when he got back," Kunzite said, withdrawing the two painted wooden balls connected by a rope from his overcoat and setting it down next to the dashboard.

The four Earth generals were seated along the front four seats of the cockpit of _The Bastion_ , having met up with Prince Endymion's private ship and dumped the one that had just taken them halfway across the galaxy and back. The Prince was seated right behind Jadeite, still looking oddly serene and peaceful, as if disconnected from his surroundings.

"Everyone stick to the story. If he gets upset, then we can live with that. It's only a problem if he gets suspicious," Kunzite added. "The real concern is how we clean up after ourselves in the coming days. Every single detail of Cronus's life is going to be combed through, and his crimes will surface. Our names can't come up in anything they find."

"Everything's going to be just fine," Endymion said, sounding peaceful and regal. "None of us will so much as register as a blip on the radar of this investigation." He slowly twisted his head around, looking at the back of the head of each of his generals in turn. You're all about to become among the most powerful people in the galaxy, and will remain so for decades, prepare for that."

"No, no, we're far from out of the woods," Kunzite insisted. "We've always believed that Cronus was likely recording footage inside the lab. There might be cycles worth of footage saved somewhere, any of which can implicate us beyond any shadow of a doubt. And who knows what insurance policies he had in place to make sure we went down in the event of his demise?"

"Nothing that we won't be able to handle," Endymion continued. "Nothing that can't be buried. Not after what we've accomplished today."

Kunzite shifted uneasily in his seat, finding Endymion's passive speech patterns and tones almost eerie. A sharp contrast with the drama and close shaves with death that had occupied pretty much their entire day.

"

Slowly, the giant steel double doors began to pivot open, High King Kasios and Queen Serenity both standing directly in front of it as they swung outward. Endymion and his four generals stood right outside, waiting for the opening to widen enough for them to pass through.

"Thank the Gods," Kasios grunted as he got up-close evidence that his son was fine.

"W-what's going on?" Endymion asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the rumble of the swinging doors, face wrinkled in a concerned confusion. "I came as quick as I could, are you—"

As the Prince took his first couple steps into the bunker's main room, Serenity came forward, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him inside.

"Hey, hey!" Endymion protested, putting his arms up. "What's the matter?!"

"You should have been here a long time ago!" she hissed. "You have _no_ idea how lucky you are to be alive right now!"

"Hey, hey hey hey," Kasios said, reaching out and gently grabbing Serenity's wrist. "Come on, that's enough. Calm down."

"Mom, stop it!" The younger of the Serenities ran over from the left side of the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest and crowding up at her mother's side. "You're not helping, just...let go, it's okay."

"Yes, it's okay now!" the Queen exclaimed, nevertheless releasing her grip on Endymion's shirt collar. "By sheer luck!"

"What do you mean?" Endymion turned to Kasios. "Dad, what's going on? Did something happen, is...is there actually a threat?"

"You...you are okay, right?" the Princess asked, going up to Endymion's side and grabbing his left upper arm.

"Uh…" Endymion gave his wife an odd look. "Okay, what's going on? W-what, the...are you guys talking about that ship blowing up over Saturn?" He shrugged. "I wasn't anywhere near that."

Kasios scratched the back of his head, grimacing uneasily. "We may have...underestimated the situation a bit." His face wrinkled up. "W-what were you doing on Saturn, anyway? What was up with that?"

"I didn't want to waste any time," Endymion said simply. "I've been discussing it with Kunzite recently." He jerked his head towards the still partially open door, as his four generals piled in. "I wanted this to be my first major act as High King. It's great on multiple fronts."

"W-well, we can debate that," Kasios grumbled. "Not sure this is the right time to be promising a lot of resources to another planet."

"We'll find a way, this is too important to wait on. It'll be worth it in a few years when Saturn is back on its feet and in our debt," Endymion said with a casually dismissive tone. "Besides, it's the right thing to do. Last thing this galaxy needs is a loose cannon organization like The Rings calling the shots on behalf of an entire Kingdom."

"Okay...sure, but why now?" Kasios asked. "Why not next cycle, or...in ten days, or at least after you've actually taken the throne?"

"Why not now?" Endymion replied. "People are dying over on Saturn, more every day, the sooner we intervene the sooner it can be over. Unless..." He raised an eyebrow at his father. "Dad, come on, we had a deal." He glanced over and pointed at Zoisite, who was holding a small data chip in his right hand. "You can check everything out yourself, the squeaky wheels got oiled. Everyone's been reimbursed, the Kingdom is safe."

"No, no, I don't mean that, of course, a deal is a deal, but…" Kasios slowly turned away from his son and looked over at the large hologram projector in the middle of the room. The aftermath of the ship explosion was still being shown on the projector, the torn pieces of the massive vessel depicted floating away from each other in the aftermath of an eruption on infinite loop. "It just ended up being unfortunate timing. How much do you know about this incident?" He pointed at the holographic display.

"Uh, I left Saturn not too long after it happened, so I overheard some stuff in the palace," Endymion said, taking a couple steps forward to get a better look at the projection, pulling Serenity with him. "Seemed to be some sort of purposeful explosion. About twelve to fifteen people aboard."

"Endy, Cronus was on the ship!" Princess Serenity exclaimed. "He's dead! Cronus is dead!"

"Yup," Kasios agreed. "And I think he was there for you."

Endymion's mouth fell open slightly. "O...okay, um...where do I start? What would Cronus be doing on a commercial ship, and why would he be after me?"

"We don't know everything yet," Kasios admitted darkly. "But there's no doubt he was on board that ship when it blew up, every news organization on Saturn has confirmed it. As for the rest, well, I think over the next cycle, all the dirty laundry will be aired out."

"Wow," Endymion gasped quietly. He stared over at the haphazard remains of the large ship. "What the hell happened?"

"I have a few theories," Kasios said. "Which I'd really like to go start working to confirm on board _The Savery_."

So...you mean, the thing you talked to me about?" Endymion asked, turning his head curiously. "You think you were on the right track?"

"Enough of the right track to scare Cronus into trying to silence me," Kasios said. "But he couldn't get to me, so he went after you on Saturn." He pointed his thumb at the hologram. "I think someone got to him before he could get to you."

Endymion slowly rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Um, you'll...you'll have to excuse me if I'm skeptical, dad. There are a lot of logical gaps to fill before I can buy all that."

"And I'd love to fill those gaps, but I can't really do it down here," Kasios said. "But the bottom line is I think you're very lucky to be alive and well right now."

"On that note," Queen Serenity interjected, coming up behind the Crown Prince. "Next time we receive credible threats of assassination, can we _please_ take them seriously?! Whatever you were doing out there today, it can't have been that important!"

"Okay, okay, we were wrong," Endymion admitted. "Serenity, I'm sorry, I should have played it safe." He shrugged. "I got lucky, we all did, and...believe me, I know betting on getting lucky every time isn't going to work out."

Queen Serenity sighed. "You're a father, you know. You're about to become one of the most powerful people in the galaxy. You have a lot to lose. There's nothing wrong with acting like it."

"Alright, I'm going to go change," Endymion said, backing out of the tight conglomeration of royals that he was in the middle of. "It's been a long day, just...I want to clean up a bit. Are we still on lockdown?"

"For now," Kasios grumbled as Endymion hastily hustled over towards one of the side rooms, his wife close behind. "But as far as I'm concerned, this is over, so plan on sleeping in your own bed tonight."

Endymion nodded, Serenity reaching around his body and pointing at one of the doors in the left-side wall, directing him towards it.

"Oh, son."

Just as he was reaching for the doorknob, Endymion froze, then turned his body towards his father.

"It's good to see you," Kasios said. "I'm glad you're okay, and...I'm sorry. I should have taken the tip more seriously."

"Hey, I'm the one who didn't take it seriously," Endymion replied quickly. "It was my choice to put myself out there like that."

"I'm going to check the numbers," Kasios continued. "But assuming I like what I see, be ready, I want the transfer of power as soon as possible. This Cronus story is about to blow up like nothing we've ever seen before, and I want to invest as much time as possible into making sure everything comes to light."

"Why do I get the sense you can't wait to be rid of the burden of being a King?" Endymion said sardonically. "I feel like I'm being tricked into something."

Kasios shrugged. "If this has proved anything, it's that I care way more about agency business than Earth business. Why wait?"

Endymion turned back around, cracking the door open and sliding through into the bedroom. Serenity followed close behind, quickly yanking the door shut and then pressing her ear up to the wood for a moment.

Endymion glanced around the darkened room that was largely foreign to him, quickly finding the crib in the far corner. He gave a peaceful, contented sigh as his wife came up right behind him.

"Endy, have you been listening to the news?!" Serenity asked in a hushed, yet hurried tone. Endymion simply went over to the side of the room opposite the crib, nearest the door, to open the closet. "F-forget the news, you should hear the things your father's been saying ever since the story came out! I don't know if...if any of it is true, but it's unbelievable!"

Endymion scanned through a set of simple outfits, pushing them along the rack inside the small closet, before finding an appropriate tunic set and taking it off. Holding up the completed outfit in front of him, he took it over to the bed and gently tossed it down on top of the covers.

"At first he was saying that it was rival smugglers that got Cronus, like...someone wanted to get rid of their biggest competitor in imperium smuggling, you were right by the way, he already knew all about Cronus smuggling imperium, told us all about it after we saw the news, but then after that he started thinking that maybe it was The Rings, and then he started with some sort of theory that Cronus was using his imperium money to fund Saturn in the civil war, then it was—"

"Sweetie," Endymion interrupted. "Take a breath before you pass out. There's no rush." He was quickly unbuttoning his shirt, fingers nimbly going down his chest to pluck all the buttons out.

Serenity put her right hand up to her forehead, wiping it off as she inhaled deeply. "S-sorry, I just...it's been a day. It's been hard to process. It was all I could do to not give anything away."

Endymion continued to disrobe, pushing his pants down. "It's been a day for me too."

"S-So, I mean, we got really lucky then?" Serenity continued. "I...sorry, I hate saying it like that, more than ten innocent people died in that explosion, it's terrible, but...I just mean, that ended up resolving our problem." She furrowed her brow. "I mean, I can't...so much of it still doesn't make any sense to me, even if your father's right."

Endymion said nothing, silently changing into the more casual wear he had laid out for himself, pulling on the pair of black slacks after seating himself on the edge of the bed.

"I mean, I guess you ended up sort of...luring him there, right? He wouldn't have been there if you weren't." She swallowed down hard. "So...what happened? What made you go to Saturn all of a sudden?"

"Sweetie, we're safe now," Endymion finally said. "The danger has passed. It's over. Nobody's coming to hurt us anymore. It's done."

"Um...well, good," Serenity said tentatively. "But what happened? Why would you pick now of all times to...go to Saturn and negotiate an alliance?"

"Serenity, it doesn't matter," Endymion replied evenly, sweeping the undershirt around his back and shoving his arms through the sleeves. "All that matters is that everything's going to be okay now. You don't have to worry anymore."

Endymion stood back up as he pulled his new tunic up over his head, stepping around Serenity and going across the room over to the crib. The Princess stood there, looking somewhat dumbfounded as her husband went past her. She shook it off, spinning around and following Endymion.

"Wait, did you…" Serenity started, still fighting to keep her voice down so Chibiusa wouldn't wake up. Endymion went up to the side of the crib, serenely observing the sleeping form of his only daughter, resisting the urge to get too close. "Endy, did you know about any of this?"

"You're going to be Queen in a couple days," Endymion commented in a whisper. "Think about that right now."

"N-No, I...Endy!" she hissed, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him a half-step back. "Endymion, we talked about this!" She craned her head up next to his ear. "I mean it. Endy, you need to tell me. You've hidden the truth from me enough lately. Did you have something to do with what happened today?"

Endymion slowly twisted his head around to face her, her expression twisted into a look of determination.

"Endymion. What happened?" Serenity asked yet again.

The Crown Prince paused, glancing down at the floor, clearly mentally debating how he was going to appease his wife. Despite the interrogation, he still had a facial expression of calm contentment, as if he was unaffected. Finally, with no small amount of consideration, he settled on something.

"I won."

Serenity's facial expression immediately went slack, the firm sternness melting in the blink of an eye, and her hand dropped off Endymion's shoulder. Endymion took the opportunity to stand back straight up, then turn around and again step past her.

The Moon Princess looked stunned, staring straight forward for a few beats, forehead wrinkling as she tried to process everything. She twisted around just in time to see him go over to the door.

The two words were said with a calm and casual, almost business-like, indifference, and there was certainly a vagueness. But Serenity couldn't help but feel as if they spoke paragraphs. They carried a weight beyond what was just simply said. And the impact of that weight was hitting her in waves.

"So, are we eating dinner down here?" Endymion called out after opening the door, stepping back out into the primary bunker room. "I could eat."

"Yeah, we can eat down here." Serenity could just barely make out Kasios's voice. She was so lost in her thoughts that it was almost as if the rest of the world was muted to her.

She put her hand up over her mouth slowly, watching as Endymion left the bedroom. Her big, expressive eyes rotated around she found her gaze drawn back to Chibiusa's crib.

"Something from the far east, maybe. I'm in that sort of mood," Endymion continued, sliding the door shut behind him.

Serenity blinked rapidly, still reeling, her face starting to tighten and expression clouding over as she continued to just stand there, in the relative dark, by herself, with nothing to do but process who, and what, her husband actually was.

"

"High King Kasios." High Priest Pious turned towards his left. "Step forward."

The Holy Gobekli Temple hadn't changed at all since the day Endymion had been married, as such historical sites rarely saw a need to be altered in any significant way. Still the same high ceilings and stained glass designs, with old-world artistry on the walls. Still the same raised dais from which Pious would perform his ceremonies. Still the same tall hat on the High Priest's head and golden scepter on the stand to his left. Probably a slightly different crowd gathered in the pews that made up a majority of the room, but by and large, it could easily have been Endymion's wedding day all over again.

One notable difference was Endymion was now standing at the front of the room by himself, Serenity off watching from the side alongside her mother, Endymion's generals, and a select few other particularly important individuals. Also, this time, Kasios was presenting himself before the High Priest first.

Kasios wasn't kidding when he said that he wanted the transfer of power to take place as soon as possible. No sooner had the lockdown been lifted then Kasios had begun arranging the ceremony, rounding up a slew of wealthy and powerful individuals who could attend on short notice. Getting the temple set up in record time, an event that was typically scheduled a cycle in advance was whipped up in two days.

"It's inevitable that, one day, a ruler will have to pass his power on to another. That much is certain," Pious said, his voice being artificially projected around the room so everyone could hear. "Over the thousands of years of recorded history in this galaxy, one thing we've learned is that the reason why the power passes is anything but certain."

Kasios was standing right in front of the High Priest, wearing a purple ornamental uniform, his back to the assembled crowd as he faced Pious.

"It can pass because of the death of the ruler, a somber event that few will be able to appreciate. Sometimes the death is even a violent one, the result of an assassination or a coup that will forever be a black mark in the history of the Kingdom. We've seen rulers be shamed into retirement or forced into it by circumstance. Sometimes, the one replacing the ruler on the throne is a brother, or a cousin. It could be an advisor or aide, or even a general. So, it's my pleasure today to preside over a transition of power with no such negative contexts. Today's transfer is according to plan, and desired by all involved parties. A King handing his crown down to his son, as it should be." The High Priest took up the scepter in his right hand.

"High King Kasios, your reign of twenty-three years ends today. But your life continues on, now yours entirely to do with as you will. Rare does a royal get this opportunity. And I think all who know you believe that you'll be doing amazing things with your life." He raised the scepter into the air. "High King Kasios, from this moment forward, no longer do you serve the Earth as it's ruler."

Kasios nodded. Pious gave a subtle gesture towards Kasios's right hand. Kasios reached over towards it with his left, grabbing a ring on his fourth finger and twisting it back and forth to remove it. He placed the simple gold band in Pious's palm.

"Prince Endymion, step forward," he called out.

Endymion could hear a gentle murmur behind him as he powerfully strode up the handful of steps to the center of the altar, his just-deposed father stepping back to the right side of the slightly-raised platform to give him room. He was tempted to glance to his left, at the closed-off seating area where his wife and generals sat, but resisted the urge.

"Prince Endymion, I'm sure you've been preparing for this day your entire life, so I don't need to tell you what this tremendously important role entails. Not just a King. You inherit your role today as High King, lord of two different Kingdoms. Of course, it was by your actions that such a union happened, so nobody can say you haven't earned this."

Endymion wore an easy, confident smile, simply allowing Pious to speak without distraction or interruption. His smooth-flowing speech patterns could easily be derailed if anything broke the cadence.

"It's truly a blessing for me to be able to preside over a transfer of power like this. Not a mourning of what we've lost, but a celebration of what we're gaining. The Earth Kingdom, the Moon alongside it, stands to benefit tremendously from having a ruler as qualified and prepared as Endymion. They call this a golden era for this Kingdom, these last few decades. I have every reason to believe that it should continue on through the reign of this new King."

Pious put out his hand, presenting the simple gold band to Endymion. He took it in his left hand, in one motion bringing it to his right and slipping it onto the ring finger.

"High King Endymion, from this moment forward, you are the indefinite ruler of the Earth Kingdom. For as long as you will have it, your power and authority over it stands unimpeachable. All the universe acknowledges you as among the most powerful individuals in existence. All hail the King."

Endymion could feel his spine tingle as the congregation behind him echoed Pious's final statement, a simple four-word sentence spoken by thousands, yet coming out as if from one. "All hail the King."

"

"Is Serenity alright, Your Majesty?" Kunzite asked, delicately closing the marble door behind him and locking it.

"Why wouldn't she be?" The just-crowned High King stopped maybe half-a-dozen steps into the massive master bedroom of the Earth Palace, slowly scanning it, soaking it all in. He held a green bottle in his right hand and a pair of fine crystal drinking glasses in the left.

Kasios had wasted no time in vacating the King's chambers, stripping out every last bit of furniture and decoration, reducing it to nothing more than the floor, four walls, ceiling, and far-side window panes. Endymion had overseen the hasty repopulation of it with basic necessities, giving it a full-sized four-poster bed in the far left corner, lilac cushioned chairs arranged in a circle close to the middle, a small stone round table in the right corner with three seats around it, and a few other obvious fill-ins, but it was quite clearly lacking the typical amenities of a King's bedroom. Naturally, it made sense that the current serving King should be able to customize and fine-tune every tiny detail of the room to his tastes, so Endymion was given as blank a slate as possible to worth with. In the coming days, it would be filled out exactly as the new High King desired.

"She's been acting rather odd ever since we got back from Saturn," Kunzite pointed out.

"Well, it's been a very busy few days, and she just became a Queen, I'm sure that's all weighing heavily on her," Endymion said quickly. "I'm sure she's still rattled from a few days ago as well."

"Mm," Kunzite said. "Your Majesty, I want to say again, congratulations. Nobody deserves the crown more than you, and it's going to be a true honor to serve you in all my capacities with you now on the throne."

"And let me say, thank you," Endymion said, slowly meandering over towards the circular table in the corner. "Without your guidance, I'd never be in this position right now."

"So," Kunzite continued. "We should move to fulfill our promised obligations to Saturn now, the longer we wait the longer The Rings have to prepare for it. I can get Nephrite to mobilize forces. As for the fallout of Cronus's death, I'm paying close attention to the investigation and have Zoisite and Jadeite prepared to act immediately to destroy anything that could link us to him as things surface."

"Very good." Endymion set the two glasses down on the table, then began unsealing the mouth of the green bottle. "While we're on the topic, how far away do you think we are from starting again?"

"Starting again?" Kunzite repeated. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty?"

"I understand we have to have the proper priorities, and I trust you to have them, but this window won't stay open forever. We need to start producing again. We need a new lab."

"Ah," Kunzite said hesitantly, his body seemingly shrinking up slightly as he brought his arms tight down to his sides. "Your Highness, I...I think we should have a conversation about that."

"A real laboratory," Endymion continued. "I won't go back to working on some tiny ship in the middle of nowhere for miniscule outputs."

"Your Highness, I'm not sure...I didn't think we were planning on starting again," Kunzite said quickly, resisting the urge to physically cringe at what he could already feel as being an uncomfortable conversation. "And I don't believe we should."

Endymion was about to start pouring some of the bottle's contents out into the glasses, but stopped, turning around to give his most trusted general a crooked look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, frankly, Your Majesty, I think you have enough things to worry about with your work as the new High King. It'll be a distraction, a time sink that you can't afford and that isn't worth it. Not to mention the risk of getting caught and losing everything."

"Who, exactly, is going to catch me?" Endymion asked. "I'm the High King, I answer to nobody now. My new role will make my imperium smuggling activities easier, not harder."

"The agency still has authority over all things imperium," Kunzite reminded him.

"The agency took over a decade to get so much as a whiff of Cronus's galaxy-wide distribution ring and the trillions of creds he made off of it, and all he did was pretend to be nice and smile a lot," Endymion retorted. "Somehow, I'm not concerned. And how is it not worth it?" His right eyebrow raised up a bit in confusion. "Quadrillions of creds worth of imperium, and an entire galaxy chomping at the bit to pay for it, what's worth more than that?"

"W-We've lost everything, Your Highness," Kunzite reasoned. "N-Not the supply, of course, but…we have no laboratory, no equipment, no materials or supplies, transportation and distribution was all Cronus, it's all gone now. It's a lot to rebuild."

Endymion smiled knowingly. "We haven't lost all of our distribution yet," he pointed out. "Speaking of which, I should point out that your girlfriend needs us to restart production. She needs the money even more than we do, I think. I don't think she'd care for us abandoning everything."

"Yes, I...I actually had an idea there," Kunzite continued uneasily, watching as Endymion slowly poured out a dark purple liquid into the two glasses. "We should sell the raw imperium to Princess Venus. Maybe...perhaps an initial lump sum, plus a small percentage of her future profits, or something like that."

Endymion gave a little chuckle. "You must be very afraid to suggest something like that."

"It's smart," Kunzite countered. "It makes sense for everyone. Princess Venus needs the capital, and has distribution in place. We'll have more time to focus on our responsibilities for Earth, we'll still get some money, and we'll never have to worry about the agency. If something goes wrong for Princess Venus, or she gets arrested, it won't be our problem. That's valuable."

"All this time, and you're still afraid of getting caught." Endymion took both full glasses up in his hands and turned around, bringing them over towards his most trusted general. "Your concern is appreciated, but showcases a naivety on your part that I didn't expect. Before now, we've been a cog in the machine of black market imperium. But this time, we'll be the machine. If we didn't get caught before, we certainly won't be getting caught now."

"Your Highness," Kunzite said, fighting very hard to not sound exasperated. "There's something to be said for luck. We've been very lucky over the last two years, not getting caught while involved in all of this. And to have escaped the Cronus situation with our lives, just think about what we were up against. A lot of things had to go our way that we had little to no control over. Perhaps such a run of good fortune is a good precursor for us to get out of the game."

Endymion held one of the glasses out towards Kunzite, putting it right in front of his chest. "You think _now_ is the sensible time to get out?"

"We've still done amazing things!" Kunzite reminded him. "The money we've made was instrumental in preserving this Kingdom. Without that money, you wouldn't be on the throne right now, and you might not even have a Kingdom to inherit. That's a good prize, more than worth the time and effort we've put into this." Kunzite grimaced. "The reality is, Your Highness, you're a King now. Your responsibilities—"

"You're right, Kunzite," Endymion interrupted, that same oddly-chilling smile on his lips. "I'm a King now." He nodded. "And I'm not going to sell my throne to someone else for a pittance because the crown suddenly feels a little heavy."

Kunzite blanched, looking highly confused at Endymion's cryptic statements.

"What would you have called Cronus, but the King of the Underworld? He ran the largest imperium smuggling ring in galactic history, touching virtually every city and town in the solar system. The money he made, the contacts he had, the favors he was owed. He was the King. And I killed him. So what does that make me?" Endymion asked.

"Your Highness—"

"In the animal kingdom, that's how it works," the newly-minted High King continued. "You challenge the leader of the pack, you beat him, and now you're the leader." He gave the glass up near Kunzite a shake. "Take it."

Kunzite, mildly stunned by Endymion's odd diatribe, suddenly looked down at the thin glass and delicately took it. "I don't think that—"

"Think of what we've done over the last two years, Kunzite, to get me here. The stunts we've pulled, the operations we've put together, the people we've had to step over on the way up. I'm not going to give it up now, I've only just obtained it. Not for some...tiny fraction of its value. We've worked too hard for that."

Kunzite's mouth opened slightly, expression almost pained. "Your Majesty—"

"Kunzite," Endymion said, holding his own glass up just below his chin. "A King doesn't have to bend over backwards or work to accommodate his situation. He shapes the situation to accommodate him. It becomes whatever he wants it to be. We have an opportunity here, to do this on our terms, and be in complete control of everything. I will _not_ sell that opportunity. Not for anything."

The white-haired Earth general couldn't keep the disappointment from his face, expression slacking just a bit.

"Relax, Kunzite," Endymion assured him. "This time, I'm the one in charge. Not Mimete, not Cronus, me. I'm the King." He tilted his glass towards Kunzite. "All hail the King."

Kunzite pushed a small puff of breath out of the side of his mouth, unable to resist giving Endymion a somewhat disparaging look.

"Kunzite," Endymion said, giving his glass a tiny shake towards him again. "All. Hail. The King."

Kunzite finally firmed up his facial expression, then nodded, raising his own glass up. "All hail the King."

"

END OF ARC FOUR

A/N: So, that too a lot longer than I wanted to. What can I say, life happened, stuff got busy, gotta have my priorities. But thank you to everyone for your patience, and I hope I was at least able to deliver when I uploaded.

Thank you for sticking with me through arc four of my story, we're getting close to the end now! I hope you have liked what you have read so far and continue to like what I write in the future.

Arc five will be going up soon, so stay tuned! :)


	49. Partners

START OF ARC FIVE

A/N: Welcome to the fifth and final arc of my story! I hope to get through this one faster than four with fewer distractions in my life, but you can never know what life will throw at you, so only time will tell.

Again, thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me this long, it means a lot to me, I truly do love hearing from all my readers.

"

Chapter 49: Partners

"Welcome, Master Kunzite." The well dressed butler bowed deeply towards the tall, burly Earth General standing on the welcome mat just outside the open door.

"Morning." Kunzite threw a quick glance over his shoulder, back at the finely-maintained landscape of green grass stretching out in front of the large mansion. A perfectly-symmetrical line of trees and a marble fountain in the center of one of the green patches completed the scenery. Even though much of the surrounding area had been altered using the latest in technology, transforming the dry arid desert into a more livable environment, the governor's mansion still stood out like an oasis. A massive marble and stone construction of four floors, the veritable palace had played host to the local governor for centuries.

"You'll find your room exactly as you left it," the butler continued. He was a short, balding man with tanned skin, who seemed to never age, looking more or less the same every time Kunzite saw him, even as he would go years between visits to his childhood home.

"Thank you, but I doubt I'll see any need to use it. I won't be here for long," Kunzite responded. "Where's father?"

"He's expecting you in the armory," he answered.

"Mm." Kunzite gave a knowing nod.

Suddenly, an attractive young woman in a light-colored maid uniform came speeding into the entry room, just as Kunzite took his first couple steps inside. Rushing in from the right-side hallway, her dark skin and long black hair gave her an exotic look that Kunzite had known well growing up, but had rarely seen since entering into service in the Earth Palace. She was pulling a floating steel tray behind her, a knobbed lid covering whatever it was carrying.

"Oh, good!" she gasped, practically skidding her white high heels across the floor to come to a stop in front of Kunzite. She quickly bent over at the hips towards the white-haired Earth general, bowing even lower than the butler had. "Master Kunzite, welcome!"

Kunzite stared over at the floating cart, which rose up to his waist. Quickly, the maid took the hint and pulled it out in front of him.

"Master Kunzite, your lunch," she continued, grabbing the knob atop the lid and pulling it upwards to reveal a dozen bread buns that had been hollowed out and packed full of a mixture of meat and sauce. "Duck meat and orange sauce mixed in with some far east spices."

The butler was about to say something, but Kunzite cut him off. "Just for future reference, these trays can be set to follow you automatically," he said, sticking the tip of his boot underneath the floating tray. "Thank you, that will be all."

"Governor Spodon was hoping that you could meet him in the armory and eat while—" the maid continued, only for Kunzite to turn to the left and walk off, the tray following a couple steps behind.

"Yes, yes, I get it," Kunzite interrupted, reaching behind him and grabbing one of the tightly packed buns.

"

"I know what you're trying to do," Kunzite said loudly as he crossed the threshold, feeling the difference as the ground underfoot went from thick plush carpet to cold hard concrete. "I don't appreciate it." The tray followed him inside.

The armory was perhaps the one room in the governor's mansion to be almost entirely functional, no decorations or ornaments of any kind, nothing but blank concrete walls on all sides and metal shelves. Assorted guns were hanging from hooks on the walls, boxes of ballistic and plasma-based rounds stacked to the ceiling, assorted claymores and automated traps laid out, and a healthy collection of blades complemented it all to provide a very robust collection of weapons.

Two men turned to look as Kunzite entered the armory. Both had the same white hair as Kunzite, though the younger one had his cut much shorter and styled, up in spikes.

Both men were impressive physical specimens in the same way as Kunzite, tall and stout with bulging muscles and a stoic, imposing look that commanded respect. The younger of the two hadn't quite filled out to the degree as Kunzite yet, marking his younger age, but there was no doubt he would easily pass for a full adult in most places.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The elder man stood up straight, placing the butt of a long-barrelled rifle on the concrete floor, holding the tip of the barrel in his folded hands, giving Kunzite an overly-innocent look.

Governor Spodon was by and large the spitting image of an elder Kunzite, just adding a worn face due to age and a thin beard. He wore a simple black brace on his right knee, and a massive bejeweled ring on his left hand's ring finger. Though Kunzite wasn't close enough right now to examine it, he had seen it more than enough times in his life to know that the gold base was engraved with _CXLVII GLOBAL DECATHLON 1ST PLACE_ , the most prized of Spodon's collection of spoils from a long-defunct career as one of the finest competitive athletes in the history of the Earth.

"That maid you sent to deliver my food didn't even know how to use the tray." Kunzite turned back around, grabbing another of the buns between his large fingers. "She also called it 'orange sauce'."

"Maybe it's her first day," Spodon replied. "Ever think of that?"

Kunzite sighed. "Yes, she's very attractive, and no, I will not be requiring her services tonight," he deadpanned.

"See, dad? I told you!" The younger man turned to Spodon. "He's not interested, why would he be? He can get any woman he wants, he lives in the Earth Palace!"

"Never let it be said I don't know how to treat my son right when he visits," Spodon said. "Even if he rejects my hospitality."

"Okay, like I said, Kunzite doesn't want her," the younger man said. "So can I please take a shot with her now?"

"I already told you, Triphane, that's too much woman for you," Spodon replied immediately, shaking his finger over towards his younger son. "You're not ready for that. Jamila's the finest piece of ass I've ever had working this house." He turned his pointing finger over towards Kunzite. "And there isn't a woman you could get at the Earth Palace better than her."

"Do you two remember how this family lost our status two hundred years ago?" Kunzite asked, putting his hands out to his sides. "Stop talking like that." He popped the bun into his mouth.

"Hey, hey, don't twist my words," Spodon said dismissively. "Nobody working here is a slave, they're all free to go the moment they don't want to be here anymore."

"It's not like I said to have her bathed and brought to me," Triphane protested. "I just want to...you know...make my move. What's the big deal?"

Kunzite finally smiled. "Well, whatever move you were thinking about, it's not going to work with _that_ ," he said, gesturing towards Triphane's spiky hair as he approached him. "What's going on with this, huh?"

"I like it," Kunzite's younger brother said, semi-defensively, running his fingers through his hair.

"Well, I suppose there's no arguing with that," Kunzite remarked wryly, then glancing down at Triphane's feet to see a bulging black sack with straps on the top laying there. "Oh, father's letting you help load the truck now? That's a step up."

"Nuh uh," Triphane protested. "My first hunt was three cycles ago, I've been out half a dozen times already."

"Oh, you're hunting now?" Kunzite said. "Who thought that'd be a good idea?" He went over by his brother's side and clapped him on the shoulder. "Any kills yet?"

"Three," he replied. "None of them clean, though."

"I know you can't be here too long," Spodon said. "Duty calls and all that, I understand. So I thought we might spend the time you have on a little population control. Maybe you could add another clean kill to your record."

"Yes, I gathered," Kunzite said.

"Has to be more fun than lunch on the patio," Spodon continued. "Triphane, go load your pack in the truck and wait for us."

"Mmhmm." The younger member of the family turned towards the opened door that Kunzite had just entered through. Scooping his sack up over his shoulder, he marched out. "See you out there!"

"He means you, too," Spodon elaborated. "He's really excited to get the chance to see you work."

"Yes, yes, of course, I'll play along," Kunzite said, walking over to the northeast wall and reaching out towards one of the long rifles, plucking it off the hook and holding it in both hands, feeling how balanced it was.

"So. You're in, huh?" Spodon asked. "He's got the throne. Years of babysitting about to pay off."

"You shouldn't be talking like that about _your_ new High King," Kunzite said pointedly, lifting the rifle's scope up to his right eye and looking down it, pointing it at the wall.

"What, are you gonna get me in trouble?" Spodon said dryly. "Gonna tell on me?" He shook his head. "It's hyperbole, I know he means well. I know he's a good guy. Hell, he's smart. Book smart, at least, but...come on, son. Don't try to tell me you don't feel it."

"I'm the right-hand man and most trusted advisor of one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, and the only currently active High King," Kunzite said. "I'm more than happy with that, it's more than almost everyone who has ever lived has accomplished."

Spodon grunted as Kunzite set the rifle butt down on the floor and leaned it up against the wall. "It just kills me that you won't get any credit for what's about to happen. Well, not enough."

"Father," Kunzite said, going over to the nearest shelf and rummaging through one of the open crates. "Earth Generals who serve a King always get remembered by history. And that's all I am."

"Oh, come on, come on, come on!" Spodon goaded. "I could see it from the other side of the planet, you must have seen it after all these years of being up close and personal with him! He's not King material!"

"I try to avoid thinking negatively of the man who I serve," Kunzite said stiffly, withdrawing a black belt with several compartments and clips along the strap. "Much less speaking negatively of him. And again, father, I strongly suggest you try the same. You're a governor, meaning you serve him."

"I don't even really mean it negatively. He's not a bad person, I...I know that." He shrugged. "And he can put up a good front, he knows how to present himself to people. Respect. If he wasn't born into royalty, he would have been an amazing actor. But think about it. If they put you and him in a room together, and they got a hundred people who had no idea who you two were to look inside and pick which one they'd rather have calling the shots, who do you think they'd pick?"

"I don't think you know His Majesty quite that well, father," Kunzite said, filling the belt with a series of dull green canisters. "You underestimate him."

"When the going gets tough, and difficult decisions need to be made, you'll be running the show," Spodon continued. "He gets to sit on the throne, but you'll be standing behind it. He knows it too, deep down, trust me. Somewhere buried under mountains of expectations and grooming, he knows. You're smarter, tougher, more pragmatic, more adaptable, more cunning, name a Kingly quality, and you've got him beat." He gave a tiny smile. "I don't even think he really wants it. He'd be perfectly happy handing the crown off to someone else and spending the rest of his days on a small private island, making love to his wife and reading books. He's just too nice."

"There's more to him than what you've seen," Kunzite stated. "I just...I don't want you thinking this is something that it's not. I know what your expectations were when I started working in the palace, but...it's not the case."

"Oh, just trust me," Spodon said, coming up behind his son and placing his hand on his shoulder. "You'll never actually be on the throne, and I...I so deeply regret that I can do nothing to change that. You belong on it. I've known it since you were very little. But, the next best thing. You'll be the driving force behind the throne. And the Earth Kingdom will be better off for it."

Kunzite grimaced, thinking about all the things he could tell his father to prove him wrong. His view of Endymion was so out-of-date and incorrect to Kunzite it was almost a reflex to want to set the record straight, but of course, he couldn't say a word beyond what he had already said.

"We'll see," Kunzite finally said, pulling the belt around his waist. "I can't stay too long, so let's get out there and hunt some Cabaras."

"

 _Click._

 _Click._

 _Click._

Every few beats, Kasios pressed his thumb down on the small red button on the oval-shaped remote in his hand, eyes not peeling away from the giant projected screen on the bare wall of his office. Every time he hit the remote, a new image was displayed, although each one continued to be as useless as the last.

No matter from how many angles the massive, burned room was viewed, nothing of meaning could be ascertained. Every surface was a charred and ugly black, the debris was mangled and twisted beyond any hope of recognition, and you could hardly distinguish one image from any other. The initial theory, that this room had formerly been the laboratory where the imperium was refined for Cronus's distribution ring, seemed to be both the first and last piece of relevant information that could be gleaned from the discovery of the room's existence.

Nevertheless, he kept looking, hoping that by some cosmic fluke there might be something of interest left behind. It was a naive thought, of course. The finest forensic scientists in the galaxy had already gone over every bit of the remains of the room, and had failed to find anything more than indications that made it reasonable to suspect the room had played host to a lab. If they couldn't find anything, it was beyond unreasonable for Kasios to discover something by looking at pictures. But he couldn't help but try.

Kasios startled a bit at a series of soft knocks at his office door. "It's open," he called out.

The large wooden door swung open, the plump, balding Grandmaster of the agency entering. "I didn't think anything you could do right now could possibly disappoint me," he said, putting his arms out to his sides. "Or did I maybe hear you incorrectly this morning? I really hope I did."

Kasios gave a quick, fading smile. "Grandmaster Galen, good to see you."

"You too, but I have to say, I'd be happier to be seeing you as the soon-to-be Grandmaster of the agency right now," Galen said, coming over to the chair on the opposite side of the primary desk from Kasios, quickly sitting himself down. "You're not putting yourself forward for the position? You'd win no problem, it might be unanimous."

"I don't enjoy disappointing you," Kasios said. "But I'm afraid I'm not interested in being the Grandmaster."

"Gods, it just felt so...perfect in my head, I was imagining it and it just felt so right. I step down as Grandmaster a few days after you step down as High King, you just slide right in. You certainly have enough free time now, I thought you _wanted_ this. Who deserves it more than you?" He shook his head. "You were all over this Cronus thing cycles before anyone else was, even when everyone else would have told you that you were insane for considering it."

"You really think you should be rewarding me for explicitly disobeying your orders to drop the investigation?" Kasios asked with a grin. "I mean, you did tell me to stop looking into him, and I certainly didn't."

Galen shrugged. "What can I say? You've got incredible gut instincts and an unquenchable thirst for justice. I'm not going to hold it against you that I wasn't smart enough to see what you did."

"Well, either way, I appreciate you thinking so highly of me, and I'd be lying if the thought didn't cross my mind," Kasios continued. "But I have a retirement home on Mercury that I'm itching to grow old in. Living on board _The Savery_ just doesn't work for me. I've got a granddaughter, I'd like to see her grow up."

"Well, I can't really argue with that," Galen reasoned. "Don't suppose I could convince you to at least consider being the number two on the high council? You'd get a couple cycles every year to live off-base."

"I just don't want to confine myself like that," Kasios said quickly. "I'll take the bump up to number three, but I can't go any higher. I still have things I want to do out there. It doesn't work for me."

"Alright, alright," Galen said begrudgingly. "It'll probably be Orion, then. And he's great, don't misunderstand, it's just...you deserve it after this Cronus business."

"I know it's too late to change anything," Kasios said, leaning forward a bit and placing his forearm on the desk surface. "But you know everyone who works for this agency has the ultimate respect for you, and thinks very highly of you. You stepping down like this, I just don't know if it's best for anyone."

Galen sighed, leaning back in the chair heavily. "Kasios, do you know how many times I had lunch with Cronus? How many of my departures from _The Savery_ were used so I could attend functions he ran?" He shook his head. "He was so involved in agency dealings, he may as well have been a high council member. And it was all because I trusted him."

"We all trusted him," Kasios countered. "Even I did until recently. It's not your fault."

"I'm the Grandmaster of the agency, everything that goes wrong here is my fault," Galen said. "I'm willing to bet a huge chunk of his success as a smuggler over the last decade can be blamed on the agency believing he was on our side." He gave a disbelieving little smile. "The former King of Saturn in disguise, can you...I couldn't make something like that up if I tried! There must have been a hundred times where I was sitting right next to him, looking right at him. He'd tell me all sorts of stories, he'd talk about his childhood and education on Saturn. And then, he's someone completely different. He made it all up. Honestly, if for no other reason, I should be stepping down out of embarrassment."

"I just...I think you could have tried to weather this. Give it a cycle or two, see what happens. I know it's a bad look, but you never know what public perception is going to be after the initial shock," Kasios insisted.

"Believe me, it was brewing behind the scenes," Galen said wearily. "They might like and respect me, but that doesn't mean they can't see a term-ending scandal when there's one right in front of them. If I didn't step down, there'd be a motion to remove me inside of a cycle." He groaned, rubbing the side of his head. "You know, he's the one who introduced me to Ossetra caviar?"

"Hm?" Kasios picked his head back up.

"N-nothing, just...it's interesting. It's my favorite food now. I have it at least five times a cycle. I had never even heard of it until four years ago, he suggested it. He even told me exactly how to prepare it to bring out all the flavors. He's given me a twenty libra platter of the stuff on my birthday the last three years, platinum-level quality." He shrugged. "And this whole time, right in front of me, he's a sociopath, running the biggest con-job in galactic history. It's like...this whole time, I was friends with his...fictional creation."

Kasios instinctively opened his mouth, figuring he'd be able to find some stock response to the Grandmaster, but ended up shutting it after a beat. He didn't know what to say, in actuality. For the first time ever, Kasios was getting a sense of genuine hurt from the Grandmaster. Despite being a human, same as anyone else, there was a certain sense that he was above the weakest and most demonstrative of human emotions. For the first time, Kasios felt a hole in that armor. Galen was hurt that he had been deceived by someone he trusted.

Slowly, he got to his feet. "It's a shock for everyone. I trusted him for a long time, I considered him a friend for years."

"It's just unbelievable," he murmured. "How can someone just be a...a completely different person like that? Years and years, countless meetings, and it was all just bullshit."

Kasios came up to Galen's side, gently placing his right hand on his left shoulder. He grimaced, then gave a tiny nod. "I guess, no matter how much we want to believe that we're close to people...when do we ever know someone, really?"

"

 _SIXTEEN DEAD IN SHOCKING COMMERCIAL SHIP EXPLOSION ABOVE SATURN, PHARMACEUTICAL TITAN CRONUS AMONG CASUALTIES_

The newly-minted Queen Serenity had her right hand's index finger rubbing rapidly against the bit of skin right above her lip, trying to soothe herself as she eyed the news article on her tablet.

The new Earth Queen was sitting up in the middle of the massive bed, which had just recently been moved in, nestled up against the southern wall, a dozen paces from the main door. The small silver tablet was laid out on the covers right next to her. She silently ran her left hand's fingers across the screen, scrolling through the text, stopping on paragraphs that she had been unable to get her mind off of the last several days.

 _Besides Cronus and his three close aids, The Bulg was also carrying twelve passengers at the time of the incident. All twelve had boarded the ship just before it was hijacked by Cronus, and it's believed they were not involved in the circumstances surrounding this event._

Serenity huddled both her hands up near her mouth, eyes flickering over to the right, checking the far corner of the room. Her husband, the new High King, was sitting on one of the eight plush chairs over there, his back turned to her, in conversation with three of his four generals, only Jadeite not present.

"This has to be it," Kunzite stated firmly. "The report said they think there are cycles worth of video saved on the chips, they found them in the Earth installation where we worked, it has to be the lab footage."

It only took a handful of beats for Serenity to again drift her eyes down to the tablet next to her.

 _The casualties of the explosion included thirty-eight year old academy instructor Herakleitos, twenty-two year old Lateria waitress Irene, forty-nine year old steel worker Lycus, twenty-five year old crystal miners Lysandra and Heron, nineteen year old academy students Herais, Pelagia, and Platon, sixty-six year old retired military veteran Thales, thirty year old gas refiner Hypatos, twenty-six year old wife of Hypatos, Xanthe, and their four year old son, Philon._

Herakleitos, Irene, Lycus, Lysandra, Heron, Herais, Pelagia, Platon, Thales, Hypatos, Xanthe, Philon. Serenity was having a hard time getting those twelve names out of her head. Even after several busy days, her mind was drawn back to them over and over. Thinking about how they had no idea what they were getting caught in the middle of, had no opportunity to make any choices that could have prevented being involved in her husband's war. It was an uncomfortable thing to ponder. Equally uncomfortable was the fact that, by all external measures, it seemed as if the new High King was decidedly unaffected by it.

"The video files are heavily encrypted, but I suspect if the agency gets their hands on them they'll find a way to access some of it. Even a single beat worth of footage could be devastating to us," Kunzite continued, Serenity again picking up her focus.

"All we need is to get Jadeite within five paces of the chips," Zoisite said. "From that range the magnetic pulse I've rigged up will scramble the files beyond recognition with no chance of recovery. And it will be assumed that the scrambling is simply part of the encryption when they do attempt to decrypt them."

Kunzite got to his feet. "We got lucky. The chips are right where we thought they'd be, and Jadeite's already infiltrated the evidence collection crew."

"If those are the only copies," Zoisite pointed out. "We'll have to keep listening in on the status of the investigation for some time."

"Of course." Endymion stood up. "Now then, Kunzite, how about the Princess?"

"Ready and eager to meet," Kunzite answered. "I can go as early as tomorrow."

"Not without me," Endymion corrected, turning around and looking over at his wife. "Don't be ridiculous, Kunzite, we both know exactly what kind of relationship you've developed with her, you won't be negotiating anything with her on my behalf."

"Excuse me?" Zoisite asked immediately, tilting his head up to look at his fellow Earth general. Nephrite drew his head back in surprise, also giving Kunzite a curious look.

"...oh," Endymion exclaimed after a moment. "Sorry, I...I thought they knew."

"Ah, no, no problem," Kunzite said, scratching at his right temple and trying to not sound alarmed. "I shouldn't be keeping secrets anyway."

"Isn't that the truth?" Endymion said, casually walking over towards where his wife was sitting up. "This is so liberating, isn't it, sweetie?"

Serenity picked her head up towards her husband.

"Gods, never again. All that time and effort I spent trying to hide the truth from you, and for what?" He wore a warm smile. "Now I get to have...staff meetings with you in the room, and I don't even have to think about it. It's easier for everyone."

"Oh yes," Serenity said flatly. "Much easier."

"Nothing hidden," Endymion continued. "Isn't that a relief, sweetie? Everything's being taken care of as we speak."

"Hooray," Serenity deadpanned. "Everything just...works out for you, doesn't it?"

Endymion raised an eyebrow at his wife. "Um...well, in any case, Serenity, obviously things are now dramatically different for us. Zoisite controls the treasury, which opens up avenues for laundering our money. It'll go much faster now, and it should be easier. Work with her and figure out what you can do to help."

Serenity's faked, put-on smile disappeared. "Help with laundering money?"

Endymion blinked down at his wife a couple times as his three generals gathered around him. Both Zoisite and Nephrite were still giving Kunzite curious looks, clearly looking for some clarity on what kind of 'relationship' he had with Princess Venus. "You said you wanted to be a part of this, right? You wanted to help?"

"I did help," Serenity said quietly, giving her husband a reproachful look. "I helped keep the Earth Kingdom in one piece and got you on the throne, that's...that's done."

"A part of it is done, but we have a long way to go," Endymion answered evenly. "We still have a lot of money to launder, and in a matter of days we'll start receiving more."

Serenity pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side. "More?"

"Well, okay, 'days' is a little optimistic, but we're going to get our operation up and running again," Endymion said. "And believe me, just because we've pulled ourselves out of the imminent danger zone doesn't mean that everything's fine now. There are still dozens of entities who invested in my father's deep space fiasco who haven't been fully compensated, we've just started pouring resources into closing out the war on Saturn, and all the while we have a Kingdom to run."

"I thought we were done, we...you said you were only staying in because you made a deal with Cronus. Cronus is dead, so this is over, you don't have to do this anymore," Serenity said, voice just a tad thick. "Don't you have more important things to think about now?"

Endymion huffed. "I already had this conversation with Kunzite." He tossed a quick glance over at his eldest general. "Look, Serenity, this Kingdom is deep in the red right now, the surplus is gone. Does that sound like a good time to forget that we have sole access to the most valuable stash of resources in recorded history? And need I remind you why I got into this work in the first place? Not a single cred has gone to the Moon yet."

Serenity gave a lingering look over towards Kunzite, seemingly seeking an ally, but was quick to realize there was nothing there.

"Besides, do you have any idea how much easier this is going to be now?" Endymion added. "My father's barely ever going to even be on the planet, and Cronus was the one person who could actually threaten me. He's out of the way, we don't have anything to be afraid of."

"Speak for yourself," Serenity replied.

Endymion grunted, absentmindedly waving his right hand behind him. "Uh, you three, dismissed. You all know what to do. Go on."

Feeling the implied urgency in his tone, the three Earth generals hustled out of the room, leaving the royal couple alone. The moment the main door clicked shut, Endymion purposefully frowned at his wife.

"Serenity, are you going to come back to normal any time soon? The shock really should have worn off by now," Endymion chided.

"I don't remember what normal is," Serenity said coldly. "When was the last time things were normal? And clearly, things aren't going to be normal for a long time."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Serenity, be rational. Nobody is coming to hurt us anymore, I'm the one at the top of the food chain now. I told you, things are different now. It'd be foolish to just abandon the business now, when we're just about to finally be in control."

"Oh, in control, good for you," Serenity said with a grimace. "Just had to kill everyone who got in your way first, but...you're in control now!"

Endymion couldn't hide his disdain for her insinuation, scoffing out loud. "Sweetie, he was trying to kill me! Us! That's the way it had to be! I wasn't happy about it either, but that's the way it had to happen."

"A four-year-old boy was trying to kill you?" Serenity questioned, her eyes flickering down towards the tablet on the bedspread right next to her. "A waitress? She wanted to kill us?"

Endymion craned his neck a bit, spotting the tablet finally and stepping forward to grab it. "Oh, you're, what're you…" his brow furrowed as he scanned the text on the screen. "Serenity, that's not what I meant and you know it."

"It just...doesn't bother you at all?" Serenity questioned. "You kill twelve people who did nothing but just so happen to be aboard a particular ship at the wrong time, and it's not even worth thinking about? A four-year-old kid dies because of your actions and you don't—"

"How dare you!" Endymion snapped, putting his hands on his hips, dropping the tablet to the carpeted floor next to his foot. "Serenity, I'm a father, of course it affects me! You think I don't feel awful about what happened to those people, to that kid?!"

Serenity didn't respond, simply crossing her arms over her chest and watching her husband.

"Okay," Endymion said, trying to settle himself back down. "Look. The twelve passengers on that ship, you're right. They didn't deserve what happened to them. In fact, I have every reason to believe they were all great people, who deserved to get off that ship after it landed on Uranus, go wherever it was they were heading, and have long, fulfilling lives. It's tragic that that didn't happen. But I had to make a choice. The situation that I was in, I had a simple, binary choice. Either those twelve people died, or me and my generals would die, probably followed by you, our daughter, my father, and your mother. That was the choice I had to make. And I didn't enjoy making it. But if it came to it, I would have those twelve people die every single day for the rest of my life, if it meant keeping us alive. Because those are the people who I care about, more than anything else in the universe. And if that's what I have to do to protect them, then so be it."

"I'm trying to...put myself in that situation, Endy. And I can't help but think that, if I was forced to choose between such...awful options, I'd work very, very hard to come up with a third one," Serenity said slowly, soundly oddly detached.

"Serenity, if you had any idea how hard it was to even _have_ a choice at all, you'd…" he grumbled. "We worked very, very hard on avoiding collateral damage, Serenity. Every step of what we did on Saturn was geared around keeping as many people as possible safe. This time, as many as possible didn't mean everyone. But it had to be done, and there's nothing that can be done about it now. So the best thing to do is move on."

"You make it sound so easy," Serenity said. "It's really just that easy to you."

"Well, Serenity, look at what it's doing to you!" Endymion countered brusquely. " _This_ is really what you've been hung up on the last few days?! After everything that happened, there still hasn't been a single moment where you've expressed any sort of...gratitude to me!"

"Gratitude?" Serenity repeated, sounding rather incredulous.

"O-or, how about, I don't know...relief?" He put his arms out to his sides. "Serenity, a few days ago, one of the most powerful and intelligent men in the galaxy was trying to kill us and everyone we care about. And I was able to kill him first, before he got to any of us. I didn't have much to work with, very little time, the odds were heavily stacked against me. And somehow, I pulled it off, and the worst thing that happened was twelve people who we didn't even know existed until that day got caught in the crossfire." He shrugged. "I feel like a little relief should be in order."

"Oh, believe me, Endy. I'm relieved. Very. I'm relieved. And scared." She wore a bit of a cold smile now. "More scared than I've ever been in my life."

Endymion squinted as if he had just smelled something unpleasant. "W-what do you mean? I took care of the threat, there's nothing to be scared of anymore. What are you scared of?"

Serenity didn't answer, instead opting to stare Endymion down with that same nebulous, cold smile that oozed sarcasm. Endymion stood there, expecting a reply, but after several beats gave a dismissive shake of his head and stalked off towards the bedroom door.

"Well, Serenity, if you still want to assist in this operation, meet with Zoisite and he'll give you instructions," Endymion said. "It's your choice. But either way, start looking at the big picture."

"

Endymion pulled back hard on a red lever to the immediate right of his seat, locking _The Bastion_ into a lazy, controlled spin alongside a similarly-sized ship that it was now docked with via a single short tube.

Off in the middle of nowhere between the orbital lanes of Venus and Earth, the two starships almost looked as if they were involved in a complicated mating dance of sorts. However, ultimately, there was nothing remarkable about the union of the two B-class ships, happening off in the middle of nowhere and without fanfare or media coverage. And yet, the three individuals currently residing within the linked starships could reasonably have been included on a very short list of the most powerful and influential in the galaxy.

The ship safely parked, the High King got to his feet, Kunzite quick to stand up alongside him. "You'll remember whose side you're on when we're in there?"

"Of course, Your Highness," Kunzite said, turning around at the same time as his charge did, both of them swiftly going across the length of _The Bastion_ 's cabin towards the rear exit. "But we're all on the same side. All three of us."

Endymion scoffed. "You can't honestly believe that."

Before the conversation could go any further, Endymion reached the south end of the cabin and pressed his thumb into a red button right by the rear door. It whisked open, the interior of the docking tube waiting on the other side, nothing more than a simple walkway of perhaps a dozen paces. The High King marched through the narrow passageway, Kunzite hot on his heels.

"Just keep an open mind, Your Majesty," Kunzite asked. "We are a long way away from being operational again."

At the end of the tube, Endymion tapped a green button on the wall right by the door, staring right at the second steel door in front of him. A couple of beats passed, and then the door slid open, revealing the interior of the neighboring starship.

Another reasonably-spacious B-class, with a cockpit on the far side, was revealed to the two young men, a small square table in the middle of the main area. On the side of the table furthest from Endymion, a long-haired blonde in a sleeveless dress was waiting, one leg crossed over the other.

"Princess," Endymion said quietly, hurriedly going over to the table. Kunzite nodded his head over towards Venus, maneuvering to get behind his charge. As Endymion sat down in the seat opposite Venus, Kunzite grabbed the chair along the side of the table and pulled it over towards the corner closest to Endymion, quickly settling himself down in it.

"Let's make this quick," Venus said. "I'm sure we all have things to do today."

Endymion leaned forward a bit, resting his forearms on the table surface. "I'm restarting my imperium operation. Do you still have the means for distribution?"

Princess Venus's stoic facial expression cracked a little bit, lips twitching down slightly. " _You're_ restarting the operation."

"That's right. What else did you expect?" Endymion asked impatiently.

Princess Venus's eyes flickered over towards Kunzite for the briefest of moments before flashing back to Endymion, enough to clue him in to what her expectations might have been.

Endymion twisted his body around towards Kunzite, who was averting his gaze and scratching the side of his neck.

"What did you tell her?" Endymion asked.

"He didn't tell me anything," Venus said lazily. "I simply assumed that you'd have more important things to do after taking the throne."

"Your concern is appreciated," Endymion said coolly. "But, I have no intention of walking away." He shot another glance at Kunzite. "And I have some degree of respect for Kunzite not wanting to personally be the one to disappoint you by telling you, but rest assured, it was never a consideration. Now, do you want to distribute my product on Venus?"

With a slight pause, the blonde Princess did recover. "Of course."

"Well, you can forget about our old arrangement," Endymion said firmly. "Things are going to be very different this time around. And don't even try to blackmail me this time, you go down if I go down."

"I wasn't going to," Venus replied. "And that's fine. We'll do an even split this time."

Endymion immediately blanched. "You're just distribution, Princess, don't get carried away."

"Everything you're doing means nothing if you don't have the means to sell it to customers," Venus retorted. "Something tells me you don't exactly have people lining up to sell your product."

"Be that as it may, you've got the easy part, Princess," Endymion growled. "Forget whatever leverage you think you have. I'm the one with the imperium, and I'm the one synthesizing it." His eyes narrowed. "And you need this more than me. You should be very happy with thirty percent."

"Don't try that," Venus said dismissively. "If you didn't need this badly, you wouldn't be doing it."

"I have an idea," Kunzite said suddenly. The budding argument was halted, Endymion twisting around again to give his most trusted general a surprised look.

Kunzite's immediate reaction was to wilt under Endymion's glare, faltering a bit and reconsidering offering his suggestion.

"Your idea won't do anyone any good just sitting in your head," Endymion finally said tersely. "Go ahead."

"I think...that Princess Venus's resources might be helpful in restarting the operation," Kunzite said. "We need a new laboratory, equipment, materials, and chemicals. I think that a fifty percent split is agreeable, with Princess Venus assisting in the acquisition of the things we need to synthesize."

"I think I can help there," Venus said slowly. "Consider my five angels at your service."

Kunzite smiled thinly. "There's an opportunity on Saturn right now, but it won't last for long. Many of the chemical warehouses there have boron crystal fluid, and there will be a window for us to take it during the confusion of a transition from The Rings to the sitting royal house. Since Earth is now participating in that war, we'll be able to monitor when the right time is to move."

"Sounds good to me," Venus volunteered, leaning forward. "So, we're equal partners, fifty-fifty split. I'm prepared to go as high as one thousand libras every ten days, so call it three thousand a cycle. Three billion, six hundred million creds every ten days, split evenly, with us both acting as equal partners. And of course, I'll have exclusive rights to selling your product on Venus. Anywhere else is your business."

Endymion blinked a few times over towards Venus, before finally offering a non-committing shrug. "It seems at least a majority of the people in this room are satisfied."

Venus smiled. "We might be able to expand our operation as time goes by. Whatever happens, we remain equal partners." She extended her right arm across the table, opening her hand up towards the High King.

Endymion stared at the appendage for a couple beats, still not looking particularly thrilled, but finally leveled his own right hand out towards hers, taking it and giving it a quick shake.

"

"It's really a good arrangement," Kunzite said, looking rather pleased with himself, watching the streaks across the front window of _The Bastion_ run past his field of vision as the luxury starship zipped across open space. "Nearly seventy billion a year, and that's just on one planet."

Endymion said nothing in reply from the pilot seat right next to Kunzite's chair, hands on the levers of the center console and eyes on the window despite having no real need to pay attention to either.

"It...it allows us to not commit too much time to this operation and still accomplish something meaningful," Kunzite continued. "And trust me, the partnership is fair, I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't think it was."

Still, the High King was silent, not giving away anything with his facial expression.

"I...um, I'm sure there will be expenses, so...w-we'll still be making a larger percentage than we were before, even with that," Kunzite continued, all of his years of training working on not betraying his mild nervousness. "I—"

"Nephrite's got thousands of loyal informants on Earth that you can borrow, but somehow you need Princess Venus and her five backup dancers to restart production," Endymion finally said, his voice even and measured.

"Oh," Kunzite said, reaching up with his right hand and pressing it into the side of his neck. "W-well, we should be careful about the kinds of people we...involve in this. And, trust me, Venus's crew is very talented and highly capable, exactly the kind of people we—"

"You should be very careful," Endymion said warningly. "Your relationship with Princess Venus is a privilege, contingent on me not feeling that it's compromising you in any way."

Kunzite was smart enough to realize that nothing that he could say right now would ease the situation, so with an uneasy shift, he turned his head to stare straight forward, feeling slightly put out.


	50. Done

Chapter 50: Done

"I don't believe we've been formally introduced," Princess Venus said, folding her hands together in front of her and giving a cheeky smile up at the two massive men standing right in front of her. Despite her comparatively small stature in comparison, she was able to project the confidence in her stance and posture to make herself look as if she belonged with them. The five women standing behind her in a rough V formation, all of them small, blonde, and beautiful like her, may have helped with that, as none of them looked particularly cowed or intimidated.

Kunzite grunted, glancing over to his right at his colleague. "Nephrite. Fellow Earth General."

"Your Highness." Nephrite gave a small bow in Venus's direction.

The Princess took a step forward towards him, extending her right hand towards his chest. He flinched back a bit, then stared down at her arm for a moment before cautiously taking her hand and shaking it.

"I have to say, I didn't expect you to be here," Kunzite said cautiously, eyeing the Princess.

"And miss the fun?" Venus countered. "Never."

The irregular collection of eight individuals was taking place in the middle of a mass of thick trees, surrounded on all sides by thick wooden trunks, these ones specifically engineered and maintained to survive and thrive in Saturn's atmosphere. The evening had just begun, the sky darkening significantly on the same schedule that it always did in this part of the planet.

"Anyway, these five are my angels," Venus said, turning around and indicating the five women standing behind her. All of them had the general physical traits and look of a Venusian woman. "Isis, Aphrodite, Inanna, Anat, and Astarte. Between them, I'm sure that we have everything we need."

All six girls were dressed in dark black, form-fitting outfits, including Princess Venus, effectively shielding her identity as a royal for anyone who would manage a cursory look at her.

"So, give us the rundown," Aphrodite asked, gripping her left wrist in her right hand and standing up as straight as she could. "What are we doing here?"

"It had better be worth it," Inanna chimed in. "Whatever it is, we're all risking an awful lot even being here."

Kunzite, using the minimal amount of movement required, lifted his right hand up and pointed over to his left, in the southern direction. "There's a chemical warehouse two leugas in that direction, currently being held by The Rings. Saturn is planning to make a push through this territory in an attempt to take it tomorrow, an attempt that seems destined to succeed. So, this is the perfect time to cause some inventory discrepancies that won't be reported."

"What's the security situation look like?" Venus asked.

"Thin," Kunzite answered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Many of the sentries have been reassigned closer to the border to try to blunt the inevitable push from Saturn, I'd expect about fifteen. Most likely, they've been instructed to destroy the warehouse if they believe it's about to be taken. So we'll need stealth until we understand what measures they've taken to make it easy for them to do that."

"Once we secure the area, we quickly round up their supply of boron crystal fluid, and then we leave. The Rings won't have time to comprehend that a theft even occurred, since they're going to lose the warehouse tomorrow," Nephrite continued. "And Saturn will just assume that The Rings didn't keep accurate inventory."

"Perfect crime," Anat mused. "Unless tomorrow's attack fails."

"It won't," Kunzite said. "No witnesses, no survivors. Remember, officially, these people are terrorists and traitors, so don't let it bother you. And, no mistakes. We have to assume we get one chance at this."

"Well, you seem to have a good handle of the situation," Princess Venus said. "So, how are we running this operation?"

"

The first of the grey-uniformed sentries posted on the western perimeter just outside the massive, rectangular warehouse had no opportunity to even contemplate his own death. One moment, he was casually glancing around in front of him, leaning up against the butt of his rifle. And then, with a whisper of a spitting sound that could easily be dismissed as an animal, a ballistic round blew right through his neck, causing him to slump over and fall to the concrete ground.

The second sentry, a couple dozen paces away from the first, had slightly longer to realize something was wrong. But even he was not given the opportunity to understand just how bad things were, as all he got was a glimpse out of the corner of his vision of his colleague falling over, before his own neck was blown open by a second bullet. He fell to the side, hitting the ground hard, dead before he could feel the impact.

Within beats of the two posted guards being disposed of, Anat and Isis emerged from a row of overrun shrubberies to the north and sprinted over to the now-unprotected area. Muted, hurried footsteps softly echoed through the surrounding night air as the pair closed in on a tall metal pole just a few paces outside the western wall of the warehouse, nimbly scaling and jumping over a chain link fence on their way.

Within throwing distance of what had, long ago, been a thriving city, the chemical warehouse had previously served as a public gym for the civilian populace, but had quickly been co-opted into a purpose more immediately important for a global war effort. Over the last decade, the building had been modified heavily to better serve the new intended purpose, all unnecessary elements removed to reduce the structure to little more than four walls and a ceiling, with a chain link fence surrounding it.

Anat made it to the metal pole first, the bottoms of her boots glowing a faint blue as she got up next to the base, temporarily decreasing the pull of gravity on herself so she could easily and quickly climb up the pole. In a matter of beats, she scaled to the top, where a steel-covered box was waiting. Withdrawing a pen-sized, black laser tool from her waist pouch, she ran the tip of it along the latch on the side of the box, destroying it and allowing it to easily swing open.

With a collection of blue-glowing circuitry exposed, Anat wasted no time in withdrawing a tiny metallic claw from the same pouch she had gotten her laser and clipped it onto a metal knob inside the box. The grip-end of the claw was attached to a thin cord, the opposite end of which she pulled out from her waist pouch to reveal it was a long coil of wire. She dropped the coil down, allowing gravity to unravel it.

Isis, hand up over her head, caught the wire before it hit the ground, quickly fumbling for the end of it. An identical little claw clip was attached to this opposite end as well, which she grabbed before hustling over to the western wall of the warehouse. After running along the wall for several beats, she got to a tiny fusebox, which she ripped open before quickly clipping the small claw on the wiring inside.

"Good!" Isis said breathlessly, tilting her head down slightly towards her collar. "It's on!" Anat quickly scaled back down to the ground, careful to not disturb the wiring they had just set up.

A couple beats later, Kunzite and Princess Venus were scaling the fence, the rifles they had each just used to take out the two sentries hitched to their backs.

"Southern side!" Kunzite hissed, his quiet voice coming in clear through the earpieces that Anat and Isis wore. The wiring they had just set up would block all communications going in or coming out of the building, obviously critical for covering up the assault, but the handful of sentries still outside the warehouse walls still posed a minor threat.

The four quickly moved to hug the wall and ran to the south, knowing that every beat counted, and that it wouldn't be long before everyone realized communications had been cut off. Nephrite, Aphrodite, Inanna, and Astarte were handling roughly similar jobs on the other side of the warehouse, and hopefully would be meeting up near the main entrance.

"

Inanna swung around the corner of the warehouse, plasma pistol out to bear as she appraised the scene in front of the main entrance. Fortunately, panic, or even concern, seemed to have not set in yet, as all she saw was a trio of guards, facing away from her, anticipating that any potential disturbances that they would need to concern themselves with would come from the south.

A wheeled truck parked up close to the entrance provided cover for one of the guards, however, him leaning up against the side of the vehicle not allowing Inanna a clean shot. Knowing that there was nothing to gain and everything to lose by delaying, she rushed forward, squaring her weapon towards the closest of the three sentries and firing.

As a white-hot plasma burst spat forward, making just enough noise to draw attention, a second energy projectile rifled out from behind her, which she knew came from Nephrite's pistol, as he had swung out from behind the corner right behind her. Each shot found its mark, neutralizing the two easier targets, Inanna throwing her body forward to line up a shot on the third.

Her left shoulder hit the concrete, both her arms out straight in front of her to point her weapon at the final sentry, who was just starting to react to the attack. She pulled back on the trigger three times, feeling the need to make sure that this volley put him down.

All three of her shots smashed directly into the torso of the guard, putting him down in a heap of acrid, burning flesh. She heard a dull thud, glancing up to see Astarte vaulting on top of the truck to look around, making sure that there was nobody else nearby.

Half a secunda after the area was cleared, Kunzite and his crew came around from the opposite side of the warehouse, immediately going to the metallic double-doors leading inside.

The massive white-haired Earth general saw the right-side door start to swing outward, and took three powerful steps in towards it, throwing his shoulders into the metal barrier and fiercely knocking it back closed. He heard a grunt of pain from inside.

"Let's go!" Kunzite called out, ripping the door open and stepping inside a small antechamber, the sentry he had just prevented from rushing out the door laying on the ground a few steps away. He took those few steps, then brought his right foot up over his chest before bringing it down with as much force as he could. The sounds that came on impact with the man's rib cage made it clear that many important things were now broken.

Not wasting any time on the man's death rattle, Kunzite stepped forward and fiercely kicked the inner door in as hard as he could, blasting it right off its hinges and scattering it down to the floor.

The large main chamber of the warehouse was filled with stacked, multi-colored barrels in haphazard, seemingly random organizational patterns, unfortunately blocking off the line of sight with a good portion of the room. However, Kunzite quickly found two of the remaining sentries, up above him on either side, each one up on a steel platform crudely hanging from the ceiling via chains.

Whisking an specially-shaped dagger out of his belt with his left hand, Kunzite flung the bladed weapon up towards the left-side guard. He was still in the process of bringing his pistol up to bear, and dropped the weapon as the dagger embedded itself into his sternum.

Kunzite moved to the side, glancing to his right just in time to see Nephrite pull off the same knife toss with the opposite guard, then move to the right to open up a lane for Venus and her angels to swarm into the room. It was still uncomfortable, and Kunzite knew that despite their flawless execution so far, it was still delicate. In a room like this, a single misfired round, even a ballistic one, could easily set off an explosion that would destroy the entire city. He hoped that the remaining guards would at least be hesitant to take that chance, and he _really_ hoped they weren't under orders to deliberately attempt to cause such a detonation in the event of an attack.

The six young women moved with unnatural speed and agility. Isis used Anat as a boost to leap up to the top of one of the barrel stacks, precariously balancing atop it and standing up to her full height to try to judge the layout and guard positions. Kunzite rushed forward, nimbly dashing through rows of stacked barrels, to provide backup for Venus and her angels.

As precious beats ticked by, Kunzite was just ready to cringe at the sound of a gun being fired, but even as the unmistakable sound effects accompanying fighting and violence filled the warehouse, nobody seemed to be willing to risk it.

Kunzite came around the corner of a particularly large stack of barrels just in time to have a grey-uniformed sentry tossed right at him, courtesy of Inanna. Kunzite caught the man and deftly spun him around, slamming the top of his head hard down into the concrete floor.

Isis leapt back down from the top of the barrel stack, landing right behind Kunzite. "We're good."

"Check the labels!" Kunzite called out loudly, voice echoing around the giant room. "Organization looks sloppy, so be thorough!"

Princess Venus briskly jogged in from around the corner right in front of Kunzite, falling into line alongside him. "See? Nothing to it."

Kunzite grunted, twisting his head to the right, then tilting it back to try to judge the contents of the stacked barrels right next to him. "You have no idea how easy it would be to trigger an explosion in this room."

"Because obviously, I live my life without ever taking any risks, right?" she said sardonically.

"I found one!"

The Earth General broke out into a quick dash forward, weaving through the thin makeshift hallways between barrels, taking several turns in rapid succession before coming to see Astarte and Aphrodite. Astarte was standing on Aphrodite's shoulders, delicately sliding an anti-gravity pad inbetween two of the high-stacked barrels near the top.

"There will be other chemical warehouses that we can raid on Saturn in the upcoming cycles," Kunzite said as Astarte managed to push the top barrel upward and shift it onto the neighboring stack. "But once we run out of those, I'm not sure what we can turn to."

"We'll find something," Venus said confidently, Astarte hopping off of Aphrodite's shoulders, the two young women now focused on pulling the next barrel off the stack that they had just shortened. "What about the lab?"

"I think we have an idea," Kunzite said. "It's being handled."

"

Endymion silently contemplated the slowly-spinning hologram, hands folded together in front of his chin, leaning forward so his elbows were balanced on his thighs. A massive spaceship, triangular in shape, with a pointed nose and a large back end, lightly detailed by the gentle blue of the hologram. Zoisite was holding his left hand out towards it.

"By no means is this technology viable for anything other than novelty. The output from the engine is far too toxic to be used as a transport within a planet's atmosphere, and the speed makes it unfit for even trips from the Earth to the Moon," Zoisite explained. "However, despite it lacking practical uses, it is quite an amazing piece of technology. By far, the most advanced spaceship ever created that operates without the need for a single shred of imperium."

"Is it safe?" Jadeite asked, sitting on the opposite side of the hologram. "What fuels it?"

"It's most certainly safe. As safe as an imperium-powered ship, at any rate," Zoisite explained. "The fuel is a complicated mixture of crude oil and eugon chips, highly inefficient and not particularly helpful even as a way to preserve resources. But it's been an absolute darling of the scientific community in recent cycles. Some easily-manipulated alarmists are calling it the key to saving our galaxy, as if crude oil is a renewable resource." He rolled his eyes.

"So, it's a science experiment," Endymion said. "Something Aigis Industries put together to put themselves in the good graces of activists and make themselves look smart."

"Right," Zoisite admitted. "But, Your Highness, I believe it's the solution to our problems." Zoisite got to his feet. "Despite grabbing people's attention, nobody is interested in investing in it. So, I propose we buy this ship. It's beyond the prototype stage and is ready to be used immediately."

Jadeite shook his head. "This is our lab? It doesn't make any sense, how can we justify the High King spending so much time on board a worthless ship?"

"Let me finish," Zoisite continued. "Think of this ship as a yacht. An expensive, luxury yacht." He put his hands out on either side of his head in a shrugging motion. "People don't take yachts because they're in a hurry. The yacht itself is the destination. Or maybe a cruise boat. You're not riding on a cruise boat to get to where you're taking your vacation. The vacation _is_ the cruise. So, High King Endymion has decided to make a vanity purchase, and a private yacht just isn't going to cut it. So, he gets a space yacht. And it just so happens to be a cutting-edge piece of technology that promotes the possibility of life after imperium. It's great public relations, like, I'm so confident in this technology I'm willing to routinely ride on a ship that uses it. The doomsday crowd will eat it up."

"So we use the ship as a laboratory?" Endymion asked. "I just...make routine trips on it under the guise of wanting a short vacation, and synthesize while I'm on board? What about the output gasses? We can't just eject it out, obviously people will be watching the ship closely."

"I've already tested it," Zoisite answered. "That waste will be undetectable as long as we eject it out the exhaust along with the output of the engine. The fumes the engine puts out are so toxic and filled with pollutants, there's nothing to notice if we mix a few extra gasses in."

"Lovely invention they've come up with," Jadeite muttered dryly.

"That's an awful lot of vacations I'd be taking," Endymion mused. "Might raise some questions."

"Turn it into a business of sorts," Zoisite suggested. "A yacht for the future, where the rich and powerful mingle amongst each other, a rare opportunity to socialize with the King of Earth. Your frequent trips on it would turn into more of a social obligation."

Endymion couldn't help but smirk a bit. "So, invite the upper crust of the galaxy on board my private ship, and then just sneak off into a side room and synthesize thousands of libras of imperium?"

Zoisite shrugged. "Nobody would suspect it. Of course, the alternative would be for you to allow us to handle synthesization from here on out. It's much easier for us to sneak away for a day."

"Perhaps down the line," Endymion said. "We need the best possible product right now, and that means the two with the most experience have to be in charge of making it." He suddenly stood up. "Zoisite, acquire this ship, and make sure to hammer the engine technology aspect in the media."

"Of course, Your Highness," Zoisite said, getting to his feet as well. Endymion twisted his torso around, looking across his massive luxury bedroom, over at Serenity, seated at the foot of the bed. Her eyes were on the tablet in her lap, her attention obviously not on the discussion between her husband and his two generals. "You hear that, Serenity? We're getting a space yacht."

She glanced up, giving a very brief smile before tilting her head back down.

"Ah, she's excited," Endymion said absentmindedly. "Good job, Zoisite, this is a fantastic idea."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Zoisite said. He and Jadeite both quickly moved to depart the room, Endymion simply meandering about in the center of the large chamber.

"Um, Endy," Serenity said suddenly, just as the two generals were closing the door behind them. "I've had a little idea. Something that I think would be really good for all of us."

"Oh, really?" Endymion said, snapping focus over towards his wife, appreciating a rare interaction between the two that actually started on her end. "Go ahead."

"W-well, I've been thinking about...Chibiusa," Serenity said, uneasily rubbing the back of her neck. "What do you think about, uh, her education?"

Endymion flinched, and he gave Serenity an awkward smile clearly designed to convey confusion. "Her education, I...what about it? She's closing in on eighteen cycles, she's doing four-piece puzzles, reciting nursery rhymes, following short-term directions. Are you seeing something you're concerned about?"

"No, no, but I'm thinking about her future," Serenity said. "Pretty soon she'll actually start reading on her own, and then after that you have...mathematics, conversation, it's about to get more serious."

"Absolutely," Endymion said, swooping down and spinning about to sit on the corner of the bed across from Serenity. "I mean, we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves with—"

"Endy, what do you think about Chibiusa moving to Mercury for a few years?" Serenity blurted out.

Endymion reacted as if he had just been struck on the forehead by a stone, recoiling back before twisting around to shoot Serenity the most befuddled look imaginable. "What was that?"

"It's just...Mercury, you know the reputation they have. The finest educators in the galaxy, it seems like it might be a good idea for her to start her initial education there. Get her off to a good start. A-A lot of wealthy families send their children to Mercury for education," Serenity explained.

"Serenity, I know all of that," Endymion said, sounding mildly annoyed that his wife seemed to be under the impression she was educating him. "T-they don't do it to children before their second birthday, not even the...most disinterested, unloving parent in the galaxy would send their toddler off to another planet!"

"I'm just thinking about what's best for her!" Serenity exclaimed, sounding maybe a quarter of the way to hysteria. Quickly, she calmed herself down, closing her eyes for a moment. "Just, give her the best possible head start on her formal education, you know?"

"Sending her away from her parents before she can even read is certainly not what's best for her," Endymion said. "Besides, Serenity, you're missing the bigger point."

The Queen looked frustrated, but held her lips closed.

"We're royals. I'm the High King." Endymion put his right hand up in the air, mimicking a snapping motion between his middle and index fingers. "I snap my fingers, and ten of Mercury's finest scholars fall all over themselves for the right to move into the palace for the next twenty years to personally oversee her education. We can bring them here." He shrugged. "There's nothing on Mercury that Chibiusa won't be able to have here."

"Um...w-well, Endy, I'll...you know…" Serenity swallowed down hard, an audible gulping sound accompanying it. "I'm just wondering, is it safe here? Is the Earth Palace really a good place for her to be right now, with you...doing all of this?"

Endymion couldn't stop himself from almost chuckling at the insinuation. "Serenity, the Earth Palace is the safest place in the universe for her. Don't be silly."

"I...I'm just not sure she should be here, while we're doing all of this," Serenity said, voice a little shaky as Endymion got to his feet.

"Sweetie, your concern is admirable, but no longer applicable," Endymion insisted. "Cronus is dead. He was the threat. I'm in complete control of everything now, none of us ever has to worry about anything again. Now, if you want to help our daughter, why don't you put out a call for resumes on Mercury for pre-academy educators? Just tell me who you want for Chibiusa, and I'll have them moved here the very next day."

With that, the High King spun back around and made for the bedroom door, leaving his wife there to stew in her own uncertainty.

"

"There will be further opportunities to raid chemical warehouses on Saturn as the war wraps up," Kunzite said, holding his hands behind his back as Endymion peeled the lid off the top of the nearest barrel. "But once that's over, I'm not sure what recourse we have. Stealing boron crystal fluid is very difficult, and even a successful theft will attract a lot of attention from the agency."

Endymion stared down into the open barrel, examining the liquid within, resting his hands on either side of the barrel lip. He glanced over to the right, seeing five identical barrels lined up against the back of the plain storage room, underneath one of Kunzite's safehouses on the southern hemisphere of Earth. Nothing but four concrete walls on all sides and a brown stone floor, it was a place Kunzite would have preferred Endymion never actually visit in person, but the High King was quite insistent on being as hands-on as he could with regards to everything in the imperium operation.

"How many more warehouses to raid?" Endymion asked.

"Maybe...three, four?" Kunzite answered uneasily. "It's hard to know which ones will line up properly, the timing has to be right. And we have no way of knowing for sure how much, if any, boron fluid they'll have. Anyway, each barrel is good for twelve-hundred libras of imperium, so hopefully, we'll collect enough for a year of working with Princess Venus, but after that, I'm not sure what we do."

Endymion drummed his fingers on either side of the barrel a couple times.

"We should come up with something now, since—"

"We're not going to be making money fast enough," Endymion said, forehead condensing slightly into wrinkles. "I need to find another distributor."

"Uh...Your Highness, we have a bottleneck," Kunzite said, masterfully pivoting to address the unexpected and off-topic proclamation from his charge. "What we have isn't even enough for our partnership with Venus, adding another distributor would just accelerate the problem."

"We'll have to find a solution to that soon either way," Endymion deflected. "You said it yourself, seventy billion a year, on just one planet. What good is that qualifier if we don't find a way to sell our product elsewhere?"

"Umm...w-well, we could utilize Nephrite's network again," Kunzite said, glad that Endymion was still looking the barrel's contents over instead of watching him cringe. "But, being somewhat detached from distribution is really a good idea, so we should be cautious about that."

"No, no, you're right, we shouldn't go back to that," Endymion said, relieving a tiny bit of the concern that Kunzite had. "We need something else. It needs to be bigger."

Kunzite gritted his teeth together tightly. "I'm not sure now's the right time for that, we should at least start on Venus first. And, ultimately, it's a big risk. Every person we bring in on this operation is one more person who knows about your involvement in it. And it'll only take one to destroy everything we've built."

Endymion slowly straightened up, then bended down a bit to grab the barrel lid. "Sure, but...what if we brought in someone who already knew?"

"

With a smooth flow of movement that spoke to her royal background and her formal upbringing, Princess Mercury practically floated down the hallway, back straight and head even. Surrounded on all sides by Hermelculus-era paintings, organized in what could easily have been a timeline of the century-long art movement, her elegant dress and flawless gait made her fit right in with the environment.

She wore a pleasant, peaceful smile, walking down the hall and preparing to swing out into the path on her left, out into the Mercury Palace's banquet room.

"Afternoon," Mercury called out, not anticipating anything surprising, knowing only that her mother had called her down here to help receive an important guest. She often sat in on such meetings, as she was rapidly approaching the age where it might be appropriate for her to take the throne herself. The moment her eyes focused on the head of the long redwood table, however, she nearly jumped back right into the hall, her facial expression cracking.

At the very head of the table, her mother, as she had expected, was now eyeing her with an odd look, having seen her very obvious reaction to the person sitting to her immediate right, along the side of the long eating surface. High King Endymion, hands steepled in front of him, twisting his head slightly to look at her.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" Queen Mercury asked, giving a couple side glances over towards Endymion, clearly concerned about being embarrassed in front of him.

"Uh...y-yeah, yes!" the Princess exclaimed, pushing through the vague sense of dread developing in her stomach at the sight of Endymion. "Just surprised, that's all!"

The Queen gave her daughter a bit of a caustic look, clearly not happy with her unprofessional behavior. "Right, well." She furtively gestured towards the chair opposite the High King. "Come on."

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Endymion said quietly, turning to present his most pleasant face towards the Queen. "I was actually hoping to meet with her privately, just me and her. Not here. I have a proposition for her, specifically."

"Oh, well, when?" Queen Mercury asked. "Right now?"

Princess Mercury subtly managed to move her hands behind her, so that her folding her fingers into nervous fists would be hidden from view. She barely managed to plaster a fake smile on her face, all of her social training just barely able to keep it up.

"As soon as possible, that's...the main reason why I'm here." He gestured his right hand towards the Queen. "Of course, catching up with you now that I've taken the throne, always important. These alliances have to be maintained."

"Absolutely," the Queen said, turning to look over at the Princess. "Mercury, darling, how about a minuta?"

"Umm...well, honestly, my...this is awkward," Mercury managed. "My schedule is actually very packed today, I have a lot of...things, I'm not sure if I can make it work. I'm v-very sorry to have to say that."

The Queen blinked a couple times, then turned to face her daughter. "Mercury, what's wrong with you?"

Princess Mercury stood there, stock still, going slightly pale. This was the first time she had personally seen Endymion since that one night on Neptune, and despite happening over a year ago, the events of that night were still fresh in her mind. When virtually every interaction you had with others tended to involve people bowing to you and treating you with the utmost respect, an event like that had a way of sticking in your brain.

"This is the High King," Queen Mercury said, clearly annoyed with having to state something so obvious. "You clear your schedule for the High King."

"Ah...silly me, my apologies," she replied, trying to play it off casually. "O-one minuta, then, Your Highness. Will my study suffice?"

"Yes, I think so," Endymion answered.

"I'll go prepare to receive you," Mercury said, eagerly spinning about and dashing out of the room, happy to buy herself at least a bit of time. She exhaled heavily the moment she was out of sight, stopping for a moment and perking up her ears to try to listen.

"Terribly sorry about my daughter, I'm not sure what's wrong with her," Queen Mercury said in a low voice that she could barely detect.

"Oh, it's quite alright," Endymion insisted.

With a sigh, the Princess walked off, moving much less elegantly this time, almost as if she was trying to outrun something behind her.

"

Princess Mercury's study was pretty much exactly what you would expect given the Princess's reputation. The back wall was made entirely of dark wood shelves, rows and rows of leather-bound and gold-plated books lined up in a carefully curated order, with some crystal figurines acting as bookends. The leftmost wall was covered in galactic and planetary maps, informational charts, and a large blank screen. The right wall was decorated with assorted artwork that was to the Princess's taste, largely paintings of oceans and seas, some depicting mermaids or fishing expeditions. A few steps from the back wall, there was a dark blue desk, a screen built into the surface and a small control panel to the right. A small blue kettle and two small white cups were set out as well.

Princess Mercury sat on the opposite side of the desk from the entry door, watching the High King of Earth shut the large, heavy wooden door behind him. No longer needing to pretend that she was at all comfortable with his presence, she just eyed him tentatively as he turned around and proceeded across the room.

"Afternoon, Princess," Endymion said, his peaceful demeanor trying it's very best to put Mercury at ease. Not that it was having much success. "Can we talk?"

"W-what do you want?" Mercury asked, watching suspiciously as Endymion reached inside his overcoat and pulled out a rectangular black box.

"Are we alone?" he asked, staring down at the front side of the box. "Just us two?"

"Yes, we're alone," she said tersely, tensing up even more as Endymion pulled the chair on the opposite side of the desk out and sat himself down on it. "And I haven't told anyone."

Endymion smiled. "Is that what you think this is about?"

"I haven't!" she reiterated. "I said I wouldn't, and I haven't!"

"Mercury, do you think I'm here to...to kill you, or something?" Endymion said, giving her a somewhat judgemental look. Finally, he shook his head. "Alright, alright, I suppose we need to address the elephant in the room first." He gave a sheepish look. "That, uh...that night on Neptune, I...I hope you can understand, I was trying to protect myself. Protect you too, really, and given circumstances, I felt like it was important to make sure the point got across. I'm sorry that had to happen, I probably went a little over the top."

Mercury didn't take her eyes off of him, not at all comforted by his friendly demeanor and apologetic words.

"Look, Mercury, I've just been crowned High King of Earth, and it's very likely you're going to be crowned Queen of Mercury sometime in the next decade," Endymion continued. "We're going to have to interact and work together at some point, we're allies. Sometimes, people fight, they move past it. You can't just avoid me forever, may as well start getting over it now."

The Princess, after several beats, eased her feet down to the carpeted floor, untensing her body enough to at least allow her to unfurl a bit. "Is that all you wanted to say to me?"

"No," Endymion said. "I actually do have a proposition for you, if you'll hear it."

Princess Mercury slowly reached out towards the tea kettle, grabbing the handle on the side and pulling it up a bit. She poured a small amount of a steaming clear liquid into the cup nearest her. "Go ahead," she said, gaining a little bit of steel in her voice as she managed to settle herself.

"I understand you like to collect things," Endymion started, glancing over towards the paintings on the wall. "Paintings, jewelry, sculptures, trinkets, artifacts. Rare, expensive things, basically." He nodded. "I'm rather fond of it myself."

"Ummm...w-well, building a collection of uncommon, valuable objects is a trait shared by virtually all royal houses," Mercury said.

"But Mercury's reputation for surrounding themselves with the priceless artifacts of galactic history is of particular notability," Endymion pointed out. "Just on my way from the entrance to the banquet hall, I saw some truly breathtaking spreads of decorations."

"I mean, that's more...my mother than me. Our predecessors as well, they've been the ones who have made our palace look the way it does," Mercury said slowly. "I've had rather little say in any of that."

"What, so you plan on breaking with generations of tradition? Suddenly, Mercury's fascination with advertising their wealth and status will just...disappear when you're in charge?"

"I didn't say that," Mercury answered defensively. "I...I imagine that I'll have an interest in expanding the collection." She blinked up at Endymion a couple times. "You're not...actually here to try to shame me for that, are you?"

Endymion gave a couple of dismissive laughs. "Of course not! We're both in the same boat there, you should see my bedroom."

"Then what's your point?" Mercury asked. "What are you trying to get at?"

Endymion reached his right hand into the inside pocket of his overcoat again, this time going to the other side of the garment to pull out a tiny black tablet. Mercury flinched back slightly, fear seizing her for the briefest of moments before the High King placed the tablet screen-up on the desk. With a tap of his finger on the center of the screen, a clear and finely detailed hologram a few finger-lengths tall popped up. A white statue of a man wearing the heavy armor and holding the katana sword that was often associated with a samurai.

"What do you think?" Endymion asked.

"I...I don't know," Mercury said, staring down at the holographic depiction of a warrior. Slowly, she ducked her head down towards it. "What is it, the...the Sventland sculptures?"

"Wow, you're good," Endymion said bemusedly. "That's right. You know they're almost eight hundred years old now? Calacatta marble, and they're taller than me!"

Mercury pursed her lips. "You're offering them to me?"

"Well, not all of them," Endymion said with a chuckle. "But don't you think a few of them would go nice somewhere in this palace? Maybe a museum, I don't know, at that point it'd really be up to you." He smiled. "Trust me, I know there's a particular thrill when you get your hands on a valuable artifact from another culture or Kingdom, it's...it's empowering. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

Mercury just sat, keeping quite still, not entirely buying what the High King of Earth was selling quite yet.

"Anyway, anyway, sixty statues like this were sculpted on the order of one of my ancestors, and as of today, while the royal house of Earth has parted with about twenty of them to museums and wealthy collectors, none of them have left Earth." Endymion reached forward and tapped the small tablet again, getting the samurai sculpture to change to one of a hammer-wielding blacksmith. "How would you like to make the royal house of Mercury the first to change that?"

"Why aren't you bringing this proposal to my mother?" Mercury asked. "She's still the Queen, she's probably the one you'd want to do this with."

"Ah, at this point, I think it more concerns you than her, what with you standing to take control in the near future," Endymion answered dismissively, tapping the tablet again, getting it to display a sculpture of a man in blue robes and wearing glasses, holding an open book in his hands. "Oh, the scholar, you might like that one. We can certainly negotiate over which ones you'd like, you know each one is unique. But suppose we just said...six of them?"

Mercury examined the new sculpture that Endymion had just put on display. "Maybe," she said, still wary.

"Wonderful," Endymion said. "Now, eighteen cycles ago, one of these pieces was sold at auction for twenty-two and a half million creds. I don't particularly feel the need to squeeze every last cred out of this transaction, this is a symbol of our alliance as much as anything. Let's say twenty million a piece."

"Um, off-hand, sounds fair," Mercury said.

"Or, you can consider them a gift, if we can come to a separate understanding," Endymion added.

Mercury could almost feel the other shoe dropping. The pit of dread in her stomach returned, and the temporarily suppressed memories of her encounter with Endymion on Neptune returned.

"I'm trying to expand my operation," Endymion continued. "Yes, I do mean the one that you so cleverly uncovered last year." He smirked. "Still not sure how you pulled that off. In any case, specifically, I want to expand it to your planet. Mercury is an absolute gold mine for black market imperium."

Princess Mercury's facial expression immediately tightened and her mouth dropped open slightly, uncomfortable even hearing vague details of Endymion's criminal activities. Even worse was the obvious implication that, if he was bothering to tell her about this, it meant that he needed her involvement in some way.

"After all, this planet is where a large percentage of the rich and powerful make their homes, many of whom run large businesses and corporations, titans of industry, if you will," Endymion continued. "And large businesses and corporations need large amounts of imperium in order to operate, meaning the ability to purchase large amounts of high-quality imperium at discounted prices is highly valuable to them."

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Mercury said rapidly, finally snapping out of her shock at Endymion so brazenly telling all of this to her. "Why are you telling me this?! You want me to...to look the other way?! Because you're talking to the wrong person for that, my mother...and, well, no, you shouldn't ask her about this either!"

"Not quite," Endymion said, not showing any reaction at all to her obvious aggravation. "I actually need some help." Slowly, he reached forward, grabbing the tea kettle that was on the desk between the two and starting to pour out some of his own tea into his cup.

"You...you can't be serious!" Mercury snapped. "You think...no, no, absolutely not! If you...if you really want to involve yourself in criminal enterprises like this, then that's your prerogative, but I don't want to hear about it _or_ involve myself in any of it!"

"Princess, please, just hear me out. I assure you, it's much easier than you're thinking," Endymion said wearily, setting the kettle back down and pulling the cup in front of him.

"I don't care what it is!" Mercury rocketed up to her feet, putting her palms down on the desk and leaning forward towards Endymion, now warming up to the point where she could put her rarely-used angry reactions through their paces. "I'm keeping your secret, but you can't honestly expect me to—"

"It's difficult to know who you can trust to see things your way," Endymion said, speaking with enough force to get Mercury to halt her tirade. "Obviously, there are countless people living on this planet who could use cheaper imperium, but in my position, I don't know which ones will jump at the opportunity, and which ones will just turn around and report me to the Galactic Imperium Agency." He shrugged. "You, on the other hand, being who you are, have access to certain personal details of these people, maybe some things in their past, that would make it fairly easy to know who to approach."

"Endymion, no!" Mercury said, irate enough to forget to even address the High King with the proper titles in front of his name. "Not even a consideration, you're out of your mind!"

"Princess, all I need you to do is figure out who among your wealthiest inhabitants would be open to using black market imperium to run their businesses, and then orchestrate the handoff," Endymion continued. "It'll be very easy, the Sventland sculptures are extremely heavy, so adding a couple thousand libras of refined imperium to the package will hardly be noticed. Besides, any package sent directly from me to you will obviously not be examined in any meaningful way, it'd be marked for your eyes only."

"Can you not hear me?!" Mercury hissed. "I don't care if it's easy, it's illegal!"

"Princess, please, just calm down, no harm can come from having a simple discussion," Endymion said, gesturing towards the ornate wooden chair behind Mercury. "You don't have to worry about ever being caught. I know you, you're far too smart to slip up on something like this. And you're far too smart to pass up on an opportunity like this, when I'm offering you twenty percent of the income for such simple work."

The Princess looked incredulous. "Money? Really?"

"Princess, it's _billions_ of creds. Even just a few large corporations, you'll be making hundreds of billions of creds a year, you must realize how valuable this imperium is," Endymion said, taking a sip out of his tea cup.

"I...I don't care, I don't want to hear this anymore," Mercury said, trying to pivot from sounding angry to just being firm and serious, in the hopes that it might better convey her complete lack of interest. "W-what make you think I would _ever_ be interested in something like this?!"

Endymion smiled easily, looking almost exasperated. "Princess Mercury, why do I get the sense that you're not happy to have heard my offer, when all I am trying to do is help provide an easy way for you to make a lot of money?"

"M-money?!" Mercury repeated, tossing her right arm over towards the wall of paintings. "Have a look around this palace, this planet! Check our financial statements and diamond mine outputs! You, you know our reputation in this galaxy, our fiscal standing is the _envy_ of every other Kingdom in the solar system! I don't need money!"

"For now," Endymion said. "Things can change quickly, though, as I'm sure you know. Mercury is a rather small planet, those mines won't produce forever. Things can change quickly, why not work now to secure things as best you can?"

"No! I'm not...not this!" She swept her arms across her chest, swinging them out to her sides in an emphatic gesture of declining. "Even if I _needed_ money, it certainly wouldn't be this! I've heard enough, this conversation is over!" She pointed over towards the door across the room, becoming far more animated and emotional than she typically was. "High King Endymion, I've heard your offer, considered it, and I'm declining it! You want to work in black market imperium, fine, you want to sell on Mercury, that's your business, but I am _not_ getting involved in any of this!" She reached forward, roughly grabbing the small tablet and sticking it out towards Endymion. "F-forget the sculptures, too, thank you for the offer, but no thank you! Please, leave, and forget this meeting ever happened, I don't want to hear anything about your imperium again!"

Slowly, the friendly smile that Endymion had kept on his face for virtually his entire visit to the Mercury Palace faded, replaced by a neutral and blank expression. Slowly, he glanced down to regard the tiny tablet that Mercury was waving around trying to get him to take.

"I said I would keep your secrets, and I will, I won't tell anyone, but our business ends there! Beyond that, we're done!"

Endymion gave a weary sigh, then took the small screen out of Mercury's hand. Quickly, he slipped it back inside his overcoat, then gave an animated little shrug. Then, he got to his feet.

However, instead of turning around to leave, or trying to offer some formal farewell, he instead moved to the right, purposefully stepping around the desk. Princess Mercury unconsciously took a step back, her look of determination immediately faltering.

"Hey, no, no," Mercury said, watching helplessly as Endymion came around to the other side of the desk. She scuttled backwards several steps, reflexively retreating as the High King advanced on her. "Come on," she said, sounding less and less assertive by the syllable.

Endymion was more than a head taller than Mercury, and was able to do a shockingly effective job of transforming into an imposing figure. Even though Princess Mercury was in her study, in her palace, on her planet, and by all measures should have had all the control over this conversation, Endymion needed only a couple beats to intimidate the confidence right out of her. Without so much as laying a finger on her, he was able to back her right into the back wall of the room. Standing there, towering over her, looking down at her with a stern scowl, the Princess felt none of the security that should have come from being so deep in her own territory.

Instinctively, she cowered a bit, averting her gaze from his, making it all the easier for Endymion to use his significant height advantage to intimidate her.

"We're done when _I_ say we're done," Endymion rumbled in a low, gravelly hiss.

Princess Mercury was at least able to hold back the more obvious and weakest of emotional showcases like the last time Endymion had scared her into doing what he wanted her to do. But her slouched posture and fearful eyes made it clear that, all the same, he had succeeded.

"

Serenity's entire body tensed up when she heard the bedroom door open. Even though it could only be one of a few different people, and was overwhelmingly likely to be one particular person, she was almost afraid to roll over to see. Laid out on the edge of the far side bed, on her side, underneath the covers, Serenity had been trying and failing to get to sleep for some time now.

"Sorry I'm late."

Serenity winced a bit when Endymion made it clear that it was him that had just entered. She didn't move to look at him, nor did she respond.

"I was visiting your friend, actually. Mercury. I have some exciting news, actually."

She could hear the whisk of fabrics rubbing up against each other as he started to disrobe. Absentmindedly, she started running the fingertips of her right hand across the sheets right in front of her.

"Long story short, she's going to be part of our little operation. So that's two of your best friends now, participating in this, making money hand over fist. That's kind of nice, isn't it?"

She could feel the massive mattress shift a bit as Endymion put his weight down on the other side of it, but just continued to stare off towards the far side of the room at the wall, face wrinkled with concern and fear.

"It took some plying and convincing for her to understand things, but by the time I left, we were both on the same wavelength. Mercury, she can be a little...stubborn sometimes about certain things, but you can convince her as long as you know how to do it."

Serenity felt his hand softly touch down on her shoulder. She just barely spun her eyeballs to the right to see his fingers before returning her focus to the other side of the room.

"I know you're worried," Endymion said quietly into her ear. "But I want you to know, Serenity, that we have nothing to be concerned about anymore. We do what we do for family. And there's no better reason to do something than for family."

Serenity shifted around uncomfortably as she felt Endymion's body press up against her back, his long slender arms gently wrapping around her shoulders. She felt him lightly kiss the top of her head. She just remained limp and unresponsive.


	51. Visitors

Chapter 51: Visitors

A/N: Wow, longest delay between chapters yet. Sorry for the wait on this one, I hope everyone can understand that the current situation in the world is causing some unexpected events and incidents in just about everyone's life, including my own. Fortunately, despite a close call, I have kept my job (though nearly half of my co-workers did not), and things are starting to stabilize.

That being the case, I think it's likely my writing will be speeding up again soon. Also I have recently decided to enter a SenshiXShittenou writing bang, complete with artist pairings, so look for that story sometime in the next six months.

"

"Be brutally honest, do I look good?" Endymion asked, looking down at himself to carefully judge his formal outfit, feeling his fingers up and down the front buttons as he examined the many frills and medals on his lilac and white uniform.

"I'm not in the practice of lying to you about such superficial things, Your Highness," Kunzite said, standing right in front of the High King. "You look perfect."

"I don't know about this greeting," Jadeite said, pressing his back up against the closed doors of the palace entrance, slowly looking around the entry room, judging the pristine marble surfaces and alignment of art and sculptures. "Shouldn't you two be on your thrones? Receiving special guests like this, the King and Queen should be on their thrones."

"We're not trying to intimidate them," Zoisite countered, standing behind Princess Serenity, gently adjusting the way in which her white and yellow gown was laying on her shoulders. "We've already had this discussion, a greeting in the entry hall is best."

Endymion turned his head to the right and looked down, finding Chibiusa standing between him and his wife, Serenity's left hand down towards the young child to grasp her tiny hand. Chibiusa was also wearing her finest outfit, white with traces of pink.

"Sweetie, if she starts to act up, you'll take care of it?" Endymion asked, managing to get a curt nod out of his wife. "Thank you."

"Two secundas." Nephrite said, standing several paces behind the High King with his finger to his ear.

"Okay, everyone, this is one of the most important days in Earth history, let's do it right," Endymion said, folding his hands together in front of him.

"And be careful with cultural gestures," Jadeite suggested. "For all we know, offering to shake hands is how you declare war where they come from."

"Can you not?" Zoisite asked. "You're confusing everyone with talk like that. They've already met with the royal houses on Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars, and nothing happened. I think these people are more like us than you'd think."

"One secunda," Nephrite said.

Endymion took in a deep breath, slowly exhaling it. "Form up."

Quickly, Nephrite and Zoisite shifted so they were standing directly behind the royal couple and the young Princess, Kunzite and Jadeite shifting to their sides. Kunzite nearest the King, Jadeite just a short distance from the side of the Queen. In silence, the final beats counted down.

Before long, the large marble doors began to swing outward, opening via hidden mechanism, allowing a stream of sunlight into the entry hall and exposing the outside world to the collection of seven esteemed individuals. The gathering right outside the large doors, just past the long series of steps that lead up to the palace entry, became more and more visible as the door opened all the way.

A dozen members of the royal guard, all uniformed identically, were gathered around three thin women wearing tight-fitting black outfits. The middle one had short black hair and silver earrings, the one on the left had short brown hair and a large forehead, and the one on the right had a mop of silver hair. The leftmost one was the tallest of the trio, and the one on the right the shortest. Even though all of them had already known what to expect, Endymion still took a moment to marvel at how similar they looked to them.

After being beckoned by one of the palace guards, the three women moved forward into the palace slowly, needing only a handful of paces to enter the Earth Palace.

Respectfully, they stopped about five paces short of the royal couple, standing there and smiling, allowing the High King to dictate terms of this meeting.

"You know, people of this galaxy have dreamed of exploring beyond our solar system for centuries," Endymion began. "The question has always been, will we find life out there? But I think even the most optimistic of us always thought that we'd start with single-cell organisms, or amoebas at best. And that it would take countless years of meticulous searching to find it." He stepped forward, Kunzite carefully moving in lockstep with him. "But to find life so similar to ours, to where you could so easily blend in among our populace with no one being the wiser, and for you to come find us...it's an absolute miracle."

The three women bowed towards Endymion. "Your Highness," the middle one spoke. "It's an honor and privilege to be able to meet with you today."

Endymion put his hand out towards this black-haired woman, Kunzite observing diligently. "The honor is mine. The Kingdom of Earth has been ruled by my family for over a thousand years, and here I stand, the first to greet a visitor from another galaxy."

She picked her head up and looked at Endymion's gloved hand. Slowly, looking somewhat unsure of herself, she picked her own up and clumsily wrapped it around his. Jerking it up and down a couple times, she released it.

"Your palace looks absolutely beautiful, Your Majesty," the right-most woman stated. "You should be very proud."

"And you must be the Queen," the one on the left said, looking over behind Endymion, towards Serenity. The High King was finally able to notice that, though this one appeared to have short hair, much of it was concealed in a tight, thin ponytail behind her neck. "You look absolutely lovely, Your Highness."

"So, how about names?" Endymion asked. "I'm High King Endymion, that's Queen Serenity, down below we have Princess...well, also Serenity." He then put his hands out to his sides. "And my four loyal generals. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite."

"Seiya," the middle one stated simply.

"I go by Taiki," the brown-haired one answered.

"And I'm Yaten," the silver-haired one said. "We're explorers of sorts, and let me just say, we're absolutely _thrilled_ to find such a thriving civilization like this. Believe me, our people were equally pessimistic about finding so much as a trickle of water outside of our galaxy."

"Are we thriving?" Endymion asked with a clever little smirk. "You three would be the best judges of that. Given that you've managed to get here, I think it's safe to assume that your civilization is a good deal further along than ours."

"I wouldn't assume that, Your Highness," Seiya said. "It took us more than twenty horases to get here from our galaxy."

Endymion blinked a few times, closing his mouth before giving an awkward nod. "Well, you must be hungry after all that travel. We'll have plenty of time for discussing the fine intricacies of measurement of time later."

"

"It's amazing," Zoisite marveled, watching Yaten put a shrimp in his mouth. "You look like us, you're physically capable of speaking our language, your bodies work like ours and can digest the same foods, it's truly amazing."

"It does speak to evidence of a shared ancestor," Taiki acknowledged. "Now that would be a truly universe-shattering revelation."

The collection of Earth royalty and foreign visitors were gathered together at the northern side of the banquet table, King and Queen at the very head, Kunzite to the immediate right, with the three guests right alongside him, and the other three generals lined up on the left. The section of table was packed with an assortment of the finest seafood on Earth, fish and lobster alongside shrimp and caviar.

"So, I have to ask," Endymion said, leaning forward and pointing his tiny seafood fork over at Seiya. "The probe you found that led you here, what did you do with it when you found it?"

"Oh, uh, well...we stopped it, examined it, pulled it on board our ship, disassembled it," Seiya answered. "The information inside the probe allowed us to retrace its path, and the data it had about your galaxy allowed us to calculate how your central star has moved in the time since you launched it."

"You still have this probe, then? The parts, they're on your ship?" Endymion inquired, stabbing the small utensil into a cut of trout in front of him.

"Yes, yes they are," Seiya confirmed, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no, believe me, if that probe helped lead you here, it has more than done the job it was built to do," Endymion said. "I was just wondering if maybe we could have it back. Those probes were built through a joint effort of this galaxy, largely spearheaded by Earth."

"Absolutely," Seiya said quickly. "We'll make sure to hand it over before we leave."

"We launched hundreds of those," Zoisite chimed in. "In all directions. Still, the odds of you happening upon one like that are astronomical."

"Your mastery of our language is striking," Kunzite interjected, intertwining his fingers in front of his mouth as he stared over at Taiki. "Hardly any imperfections in your speech patterns. You say you learned it from studying the probe on your way here?"

"We had plenty of time on the way, and fortunately, people in our galaxy at least make the same sorts of sounds to string words together," Taiki explained. "Once we learned that there were other successful civilizations out there, we wanted to make sure we had a chance to communicate."

"So, Your Highness, are you sort of...the leader?" Yaten asked, turning her head to look over at Endymion. "If I might ask?"

"Um, of Earth?" Endymion asked, looking around the large banquet room. "Yes, certainly."

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Yaten said. "This...this galaxy, this collection of planets, do you sort of...control all of it? You are the only person in this galaxy who carries the 'High King' title, yes? Is that what that means?"

Endymion paused for several beats, glancing around, weighing his response despite the fact that it seemed to be a rather simple yes or no question. Kunzite even gave the High King a curious look, wondering what he was thinking about.

"Ah, well...that's not quite how it works," Endymion said. "But I'm not sure I care to correct it," he added with a laugh. "Such a flattering way to look at it, really. Me, a King of Kings, the true power behind all of the thrones of the galaxy, I wouldn't particularly mind you three leaving here today with that impression."

Serenity silently raised her right hand up in the air, drawing the attention of a short balding waiter in the corner of the room, who hurriedly approached the table.

"The title of 'High King' simply refers to a King who rules over multiple Kingdoms," Endymion said, finally starting to sound more serious. "Of course, I inherited the Earth Kingdom throne from my father, and my wife here was heir to the throne of the Moon Kingdom." He gestured up towards the ceiling, vaguely indicating something up above. Serenity whispered an order to the waiter, who quickly scurried off. "So, when we were married, our two Kingdoms became united, thus making my father the High King, a title I inherited along with the Earth Kingdom."

"That, that makes sense," Yaten said. "The Moon, you say? What's the Moon?"

"A sort of...smaller planet that orbits around us," Endymion explained.

"Oh, yes, we have those!" Seiya exclaimed. "A lot of those."

"It was a great fortune that we ended up falling in love," Endymion continued. "The Moon had fallen into hard times and needed support from a larger Kingdom, so the merger worked in multiple ways."

"Oh, that's great," Taiki said, looking over at the Queen. "Very lucky for you, then."

Serenity just replied with a quick smile, then a glance over her shoulder as the waiter returned with a just-opened green bottle of wine. "Leave the bottle," she said quietly.

Endymion looked over, noticing now for the first time that Serenity's tall, thin wine glass had already been emptied, down to just a few little dregs at the very bottom, but she had hardly eaten any of the seafood in front of her. The green bottle was set down in front of the young Queen, and she quickly grabbed it. "Um, sweetie, how much have you had to drink?"

"Not nearly enough," she replied tersely, skipping the middleman and opting to instead start drinking right out of the bottle.

Endymion pursed his lips, then decided to turn back to his trio of guests and ignore his wife. "Well, then, um...so, you're explorers? I assume you haven't found other signs of life before now? Anything...interesting out there in the great unknown?"

"We've certainly not found anything like this before," Seiya said. "Most of the planets we've found will need to be terraformed to support life at all. Frankly, the reason for our explorations have mostly been to try to find resources."

Immediately, Yaten put his hand out towards the High King. "Ah, uh, please, don't get the wrong idea from my colleague. We have no intention of trying to find resources here, that's not why we're here."

"Well, you'd be disappointed if you were here for that," Endymion replied. "We've done a wonderful job of burning through just about everything here, with no regard for the future."

"Another thing we have in common," Taiki muttered. "Our galaxy is down to the dregs when it comes to energy. All our technological wonders are about to count for nothing, it seems."

"Oh, really," Endymion said, interest seemingly piqued.

"

"It's destiny, Kunzite," Endymion said, setting the front shield of his helmet down on the free desk space in front of him. "You heard him, I know you were thinking the same thing the moment they brought it up."

"Of course it occurred to me," Kunzite acknowledged, carefully adjusting a black lever on the side of the large silver vat, leaning in close to a couple of small meters to read the output. "But there's a problem, I'm sure you see it."

"A problem that we need to overcome," Endymion said strongly as Kunzite released the lever and stepped back from the large container. "You heard them, they're beyond desperate, they're in more trouble than our galaxy by a longshot! Think about it, Kunzite, thousands of years we've had civilization in this galaxy, and not once have we found so much as a single sign of life from deep space that whole time. And now, here I am, with an entire freighter full of the most potent energy source the universe has ever seen and no means to move it with any degree of speed, and boom!" He slapped the back of his left hand against his right palm. "Here they come, practically a mirror galaxy a century into the future from us, using the same substance for energy that we do, with hardly a libra of imperium left in storage! The Gods _want_ this for me!"

High King Endymion's 'space yacht', christened _The Luise_ , had taken to it's new intended purpose like a fish to water. A very large space vessel, it was indeed as slow as advertised, capable of less than ten leugas per beat even at top speed. A simple trip from the Earth to the Moon would have taken more than three full days on board _The Luise_ , a length of time that nobody in the galaxy would accept given modern technology, unless the trip was enjoyable enough to make up for it.

But, under the guidance of the High King, the yacht had been outfitted with the finest in luxury trimmings, gold and crystal decorations filling every hall and room, art and sculptures in every corner. A kitchen outfitted with every dish imaginable and waiting for a crew of chefs to prepare it at a moment's notice. Over a dozen small rooms that served as sleeping quarters, equipped with automated massage chairs, personal spas, and sensory pods. It was absolutely the sort of ego-driven luxury possession that a High King might want, and so nobody would question why Endymion would have it.

More importantly, nobody would question why he'd take frequent trips on it, and once he opened it up for use to the wealthy and powerful, nobody would question why there was a large chamber near the back of the freighter that was strictly off-limits to everyone except Endymion and Kunzite. Surely a High King would have some perfectly innocuous and reasonable secrets, and it was more than fair for him to expect to be able to keep them on his own personal space yacht, right?

"Every libra of imperium we sell to Seiya and his crew is a libra of imperium that won't be used in our own galaxy," Kunzite pointed out, observing the large silver vat start to rumble to life and begin to churn. "Remember, we're not exactly comfortable either. That imperium supply is a necessary bridge to keep our galaxy running until we can begin to reliably get imperium from deep space."

"Obviously, it'll be a balance, but one I'm sure we can strike," Endymion said. "How's the catalyst bed?"

Kunzite went over to a long steel trough a handful of steps away from the large vat, towards a small drawer built into the side of the trough. "I'll check it."

"And of course, you're right, we...we won't be able to supply Seiya in our current form, too many bottlenecks for that amount, but there _has_ to be a way. I mean, it's the right thing to do, you heard them, their galaxy is completely tapped out, they've been holding things together with deep space exploration for the last ten years!"

"According to them," Kunzite pointed out, taking a tiny paper strip out of the drawer and dipping it into the trough, which was containing a thick, goopy liquid. "There are other problems, too. They come from another galaxy, how would they pay us? For all we know, they don't have anything in their galaxy that's considered valuable in ours except for imperium."

"They look like us, move like us, have been developing technology along the same tree as us, use the same energy as us, I'm willing to bet they have a few more things in common. As for economic considerations, those won't matter as long as the rest of the galaxy isn't aware of us bringing in precious substances. Whatever obstacles there might be, they're worth overcoming."

Kunzite winced. "I was able to make contact with a disgruntled employee at SpoChem who thinks that she can arrange for barrels of boron crystal fluid to go missing. But she seems to have an idea of how valuable and important boron fluid is to us, and is charging us appropriately. If we go through her, it's going to cost."

Endymion nodded. "Keep looking. Whatever it takes, we have to find a way to tap into this."

"

Serenity peeked out into the hallway, craning her head back and forth, twisting around to make sure nobody was approaching from either side, then she backed into the bathing chamber and shut the door behind her. Quickly, she jammed a large towel into the crack between the floor and the base of the door with her foot, bending down to give it a final couple of shoves with her hands. Satisfied that nobody could enter the room now with the large piece of fabric blocking it, she flicked a switch to the right side of the door, activating a low-humming fan.

Quickly, she moved underneath the fan vent, pulling a plastic carton slightly smaller than her palm out of her left pocket and a small black laser lighter. Quickly, she withdrew a single white cigarette from the carton, letting the small container fall to the tiled floor at her feet. With a mildly shaky hand, she placed the end of the lighter up to the tip of the cigarette, lighting it with a quick flick of her finger that activated a small red laser. The cigarette immediately started glowing a low orange, and she was quick to inhale deeply from the other end of it.

Even though it was highly unnecessary at this point, Serenity again twisted her head left and right, as if someone might have somehow materialized in the sealed bathing chamber in the last few beats. Satisfied that she was still alone, she tilted her head back and blew a plume of smoke up into the fan.

It was almost scary, how easily she had taken to tobacco in recent days. Mostly, she found it to be a stress release that she desperately needed right now, being constantly reminded of her husband's activities and the danger he was flirting with.

But there was some part of her that embraced the rebellion of doing something she shouldn't, just like she had that one day down in the bunker, when she was practically waiting for a news report that Endymion was dead. She didn't have the courage to turn her husband in, not when it would ultimately cost her everything as well. She couldn't even stand up to Endymion in private anymore. The best she could do was this, a vice that should have been beneath her social class.

She only had a few secundas to herself before her communicator started buzzing, nearly shocking her into dropping her cigarette. Mumbling to herself, she whipped the disc-shaped device out of her pocket, lifting it up to her mouth.

"Hello?" she called out after tapping the center button.

"Your Highness, where are you?"

"Umm...who is this?" Serenity asked, looking around evasively.

"The palace guard, Your Majesty, your mother is looking for you," the voice answered, sounding a little confused.

"Oh, oh! I'm...I'm here, I'm in the palace, just...hold on," she said, awkwardly trying to fan the air in front of her with her hand holding the cigarette, pushing the smoke vapors up to the fan. "I'll be in my room shortly!"

Ending the call and absentmindedly tossing the communicator to the tiled floor with a loud clack, Serenity rushed toward the latrine and tossed the tobacco stick in, mumbling to herself.

"

"Is there something wrong with your bathing chamber?" the Elder Serenity asked, sticking her head through the threshold and glancing around the impeccably cleaned and maintained lavatory adjacent to the royal bedroom of the Earth Palace.

"W-what do you mean?" the recently-crowned Queen asked, nervously stroking her fingers through her right tassel of hair, watching her mother glance around.

"Isn't that where you were? The palace guard said he could hear an echo on the call," she replied. "You were in a bathing chamber, right?"

"O-oh, yes, I...no, nothing...nothing like that," Serenity answered meekly. "I was just...over there on that side of the palace and...suddenly, needed to go."

"Mm," her mother answered, seemingly satisfied. "So, how's she doing?"

Serenity blinked stupidly a couple times, glancing down at her feet, finally remembering that Chibiusa was standing there right next to her, holding a small tablet in her stubby fingers, staring down at the screen with a determined scowl.

"Oh, um, really good," she replied with a put-on smile. "You know. Same as always. Is that what you came here to talk about?"

"No, sweetie, I was actually thinking about Endymion," her mother explained.

Immediately, the younger woman tensed up, hearing his name enough to put her on edge.

"Obviously, the transfer of power happened suddenly, but we're coming up on a month now since he took the throne, I'm wondering where we are with the coronation party. We should try to have it while him being in power feels new and fresh."

Queen Serenity scratched the top of her head, turning away from her mother in the most casual way she could manage. "Um, mom, he...he's already been crowned, r-remember? The...the temple?"

"That was the coronation ceremony, Serenity, you can't honestly think that was supposed to be it! It's the crowning of a new King, it only happens once every few decades, it has to be properly celebrated!" She squinted over at her daughter. "You...you haven't been planning anything?"

"Uh, n-no. Not really. I don't think we're going to really do anything, um, we might just...let it go without a party," she said uneasily. "We don't need one."

"Serenity, imagine if you two didn't have a public wedding, how would that make you feel? This is one of the most important events of Endymion's life, not to mention in the history of Earth." The elder member of Moon royalty raised her eyebrow. "Come on, we have to do something. Obviously, we'll call for a day of celebration across the planet, but we have to do something here."

"Oh, I don't think...Endymion was that interested in making a big deal out of it," Serenity said evasively. "I don't think we need to do anything. He wouldn't care."

"The galaxy cares, Serenity. And what makes you think he wouldn't care? Of course he would! If he said he doesn't, he's just trying to be modest, I'm sure he's expecting that you'll arrange something. So, we need to invite all of the regional and local governors, that's key." The former Queen wandered over towards the eastern wall of the bedroom, staring out the massive windows, deep in thought. "Definitely open it up to everyone on the Platinum Philanthropist list, you know that one? They publish it in—"

A soft click behind her was enough to interrupt her and get her to turn back around, looking at the bathing chamber door she had just been peering through, which had closed in the handful of beats since she had walked away from it.

"Sweetie?" she called out, marching back over to the bathing chamber door. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, uh, it'll be fine, just...I don't feel so well!" Serenity answered through the closed door, leaning her back up against it and closing her eyes. "Just, uh...I just need some time." She slid down towards the tiled floor.

"Do you want me to call the doctor?" she asked. "How are you feeling bad, what should I tell him?"

"N-nothing, tell him nothing, don't call him!" she protested. "It's not like that, I just...don't worry about it!"

"O-okay, sweetie, just...think about it! Endymion deserves a real celebration, it's not every day you get crowned High King!"

The young Queen folded her arms over her steepled knees and bowed her head in her arms, ears practically perked up so she could make out her mother's footsteps, hopefully going away and leaving the room. She thought she could discern a faint, soft squishing noise that might have been the carpet compressing under her mother's feet.

"I'll...just hang around here and watch Chibiusa?" From the volume, it was clear her mother had stepped some distance away from the bathing chamber door, but was still in the room. "Can I take her for a bit? Just around the palace?"

Serenity's head suddenly perked up, lifting off from her thighs, inspiration striking her just before she was about to curl up into a ball and try to forget about everything in the world for as long as she could manage to get away with it.

"

"You two sure you can get away to meet like this three times a cycle?" Princess Venus asked, staring out the circular window into the depths of space.

"I'm the High King, Venus, I can do whatever I feel like," Endymion said, sounding just a little surly.

"That's not really the answer I was hoping to hear," Venus said, turning back around to look over at the King of Earth and his most loyal general. Both were standing on the opposite side of a long table, the entire steel surface covered in tall stacks of bundled cred bills. "There's nuance between being allowed to do something and what you do raising suspicion."

"I think what Princess Venus is trying to say, is that you don't necessarily need to be here for this," Kunzite offered. "We're just dividing up money per our agreement."

The luxury Class-B ships of High King Endymion and Princess Venus were, once again, mated together out in the middle of space, connected via docking tubes, far away from anything else important that might be happening in the galaxy.

"Sort of the most important part of this whole arrangement for me," Endymion countered. "I'd rather not be millions of dolichos away while it happens."

"There really won't be much to see," Venus said. "Just math." She slowly strolled away from the port window looking out into deep space, shoes clanking on the metal floor beneath her, staring right over at the massive mound of paper money. "In any case, we were able to successfully sell every single uncia of imperium that you provided me with eight days ago, so we can consider this first batch a roaring success. Alright, Kunzite. How much money do you see here?" She swept her right hand out towards the long table.

Kunzite stepped back a bit, putting his hand up in front of his mouth and slowly scanning the fortune in front of him. "I would estimate about one billion creds, assuming denominations are honest. Perhaps closer to one point one?"

"One point one," Venus echoed. "That's our count as well."

"Seems light to me," Endymion said, putting his hands on his hips and shooting the blonde Princess a piercing look. "I recall our agreement was three point six, split evenly. You must be paying your street dealers extremely well."

"Well, they are taking on far more risk," the Princess said deftly. "But, you're correct. Three point six, minus four hundred million for the dealers. It's fair, given they're risking decades in a cell on _The Savery_ by dealing your product."

"Perhaps," Endymion said, resting his hands atop a mound of bills on the left side of the long surface. "You're still light."

"Well, I don't know if you're aware of this or not, Your Highness, but your imperium doesn't just teleport from my hands to my dealer's pockets. It has to be smuggled down to the surface, through many layers of tough security, and then delivered out to the dealers. Those smugglers are staring down the barrel of a guaranteed life sentence if they're caught, so they don't work for free. They take a quarter billion, and frankly, we should feel lucky it's not more. Then, we need a hundred and fifty million for network managers, who arrange for the dealers to get their supply."

"How did you come up with these numbers?" Endymion asked. "I'm assuming some real thought went into these figures, but you know what they say about assumptions."

Venus sighed. "Smuggling large quantities of imperium down to the surface of Venus might be one of the riskiest things to do in the whole universe. My smugglers get compensated appropriately for the value of their work. Believe me, they all know how much that product is worth."

"I'm sure Cronus's smugglers knew the same thing," Endymion countered impatiently. "You think Cronus was paying his smugglers that much?"

"He didn't pay his smugglers anything," Venus said. "He didn't have smugglers, he had a robust infrastructure of freighters that he was already using to move his pharmaceuticals around. That was the brilliance of his operation, everything was hidden inside his above-board medicinal empire. You want to spend the next ten years building a galaxy-spanning corporation to conceal the imperium inside, be my guest, but that's what it takes."

Endymion bit the inside of his cheek, glancing over to Kunzite for a moment. "Does it occur to you that it's completely because of your meddling that I'm not still working with Cronus as we speak?"

"I'm sure there's a point in there somewhere," Venus retorted. "I just can't imagine what it would be."

Endymion gave an annoyed grunt. "Fine, um...smugglers, network managers, this pile is still light by three hundred million. And don't tell me it's all for equipment and supplies."

"Equipment, supplies, and hazard pay for our distribution network," Venus explained. "Next time, I'll print out a receipt, if you're having issues with this."

"Hazard pay." Endymion furrowed his brow. "Because you're not paying your dealers enough as is?"

"Since we started working together, a handful of my dealers have been picked up and imprisoned. It's unavoidable when you're running an operation of this size on a planet like Venus, no matter how cautious we are. Those dealers represent a tremendous threat to us. They know more than enough to disrupt a huge chunk of our distribution network, and quite possibly, eventually, expose things all the way up to me. So, this is how we buy their silence."

"And here I thought you were actually somewhat competent at this," Endymion snarked. "If your dealers are being put in a situation where they might end up in prison for decades, then you should make sure they don't know anything compromising."

"That wasn't possible," Venus retorted. "My dealers were recruited into the operation with the promise of helping overthrow my parents, so they'd have to know I'm at the top of it. So, this is how we do things. When our dealers get picked up, we make sure we take care of their families and friends. In exchange, they keep their mouths shut."

"Does it occur to you that this information was relevant to us? Were you planning on telling us about this _massive_ hole in your arrangements, which could easily get back to us?" Endymion asked, starting to sound agitated. "If it leads back to you, am I to believe it somehow _won't_ lead back to me?"

"My dealers are solid, as long as they're taken care of," Venus pushed back. "They knew the risks when they got involved with me, and they knew the risks when they agreed to deal black market imperium. We take care of their interests, and they keep quiet in prison. That's how this works, this is what you do."

"Your dealers seem to have very expensive interests," Endymion pointed out. "You wouldn't happen to have a...I don't know, some sort of expense sheet? Seems to me an awful lot of people are getting filthy rich off _our_ operation."

"Um," Kunzite interjected, rubbing the bridge of his nose evasively, trying to discharge the building friction. "Your Highness, Princess Venus's dealers get twenty-year sentences if they get arrested, there's a...a need to establish a long-term fund for them. I assure you, none of their dealers or their families are getting filthy rich off of this."

After a tense moment, the blonde Princess pointed her right index finger over towards Kunzite. "I was going to be far more condescending, but, basically, yes. We need to make sure we have enough money to keep our imprisoned dealers satisfied for the duration of their sentences. Believe me, you want them to keep quiet just as much as I do."

"That sounds like a threat," Endymion practically snarled. "Actually, this whole thing sounds like blackmail to me. We pay or they turn us in?"

"Ah, I...I'm sure this was part of the agreement with the dealers from the beginning," Kunzite said, sounding a little meek, edging between his charge and the Princess, as if putting his body between the two might somehow discourage the fight.

"I don't expect you to know this, since it seems like you jumped into this business without really thinking anything through, but let me assure you, this is how things work in the criminal underworld." She held her open hands out in front of her, laying them flat. "Compensation is key to keeping your people in line."

"You know, Venus, it seems to me that this is a distribution problem," Endymion spat. "In fact, a lot of these expenses you're talking about seem like distribution problems, and last I checked, distribution was your side of things." He leaned in slightly, tilting his body to look around Kunzite. "Why is any of this coming out of my side?"

"And last I checked, we said we'd be splitting everything. Equal partners. That was our deal," Venus reminded him. "Endymion. If you want to be King, you have to be okay with the crown laying heavy sometimes. And you better get used to it, because hazard pay is an ongoing expense."

Princess Venus turned away from Endymion, casually walking over towards the port window yet again, leaving the High King to fume as he stared at her back.

"It'll be better next time," Kunzite said hurriedly. "We...we won't have to buy equipment again, that was...a significant expense. Those vats and troughs will last years. It can only get better."

Venus scoffed as she peered out the portal, slowly taking stock of the countless stars in her view from this window on the left side of her ship. "Until the boron fluid runs out."

Kunzite winced a bit, unable to stop himself from looking over his shoulder and throwing a bit of a caustic look over towards the Princess.

"You said it yourself," Venus pointed out. "Boron fluid is going to cost us heavily when we run out of barrels to steal from Saturn. It breaks my heart to have to tell you this, Your Highness, but you might have to accept a reality where you're lucky to break two and a half billion creds a cycle," she added dryly. "And I just feel so terrible for you."

"Alright, um, let's...let's just go our separate ways for today," Kunzite said hurriedly, cautiously placing his right hand on Endymion's shoulder. "We can...reopen this conversation on a later day."

"The High King is satisfied, then?" Venus asked, turning back to the two young men and crossing her arms over her chest.

Several tense moments went by, before Endymion offered a shrug and a sharp expression. "It's not as if Venus is known for producing people with brains, I suppose."

The Princess ignored the obvious barb, nodding over towards the long counter of cred stacks. "Then everything on the table is yours to take."

"

"I'll have a word with the Princess about the way she talks with you," Kunzite said quickly, watching tensely as Endymion punched a few final button strokes into the main console of _The Bastion_ , sending it zipping through space at tremendous speeds back towards Earth. "Regardless of our arrangement, she really should treat you more respectfully than that, you are the High King after all." The Earth General scratched the side of his neck, glancing behind him towards the main cabin of the ship. "It's her nature to sometimes be a little colorful, I'll see to it that—"

"Panic doesn't suit you, calm down," Endymion said in a low, commanding voice.

Kunzite cleared his throat, still not entirely comfortable as the High King withdrew his hands up close to his face and steepled them in front of his mouth.

"Um...we're still making more money per libra," Kunzite said. "A bigger piece of a smaller pie. Has to be said."

"Then we need more pies," Endymion answered matter-of-factly, reaching above his head and pressing a button right above him, getting a set of shutters to quickly slide out over the windows in front of him. With the imagery of stars streaking past no longer in his vision, he was able to calm his mind down more. "Seiya and his crew. I don't particularly care what it takes, but we need to find a way to do business with them. That's an order."

Kunzite swallowed down hard. "I-I'll figure it out, Your Highness."

"And keep your ear to the ground for domestic distribution avenues as well," Endymion continued. "The sooner we're not dependent on Princess Venus, the better. I'm not particularly impressed with her way of conducting her operation."

The Earth General, seated behind and to the left of his charge, in the immediate passenger seat by the driver's chair, bowed his head a bit, tapping his right foot gently on the grated floor beneath him. "Your Majesty, as I said, her disrespect is something I will deal with, but her operation is sound. We're owners now, not employees, that comes with heavy expenses. And she's correct when she says that paying off jailed dealers is the only way to ensure their silence."

"The only way _she's_ willing to accept, maybe," Endymion said harshly, dropping his hands into his lap and squeezing them into fists. "People get killed in prison all the time, don't they?"

Kunzite shifted uncomfortably, wincing hard enough to wrinkle his whole face.

"I'm sure she's too sentimental to consider that. No place for sentimentality in this business," Endymion continued, talking to himself more than anything else. "Somewhere out there, in this galaxy, there's a potential distributor ten times better than her. And the sooner we find this person, the better."

Kunzite absentmindedly played with his collar, but then gave a shaky nod. "Yes, Your Highness."


	52. Gambit

Chapter 52: Gambit

"So he's just making fun of us now," Kasios grunted, digging his index finger into his left temple as he stared down at the tablet screen laying down on the open desk space in front of him.

"Oh, don't take it personally," Naxos argued from the opposite side of the desk. "It's probably not even the same guy."

Now a few cycles removed from being the High King, Kasios had taken the opportunity to redecorate and rearrange his office on _The Savery_ , toning down the more luxurious trimmings and attempting to utilize lighter colors and more modest decorations. Gone were the ivory carvings and jewel-studded blades, in favor of simple paintings.

Kasios's face wrinkled. "Why wouldn't it be the same guy?"

Naxos shrugged. "Tellu, Ptilol, Eudial, had to be one of those three. Or Cronus himself. Come on, relax a bit, we got the big fish."

"Apparently not!" Kasios exclaimed, bringing the butt end of his fist down on the tablet screen, cracking it and immediately getting the screen to go black. Naxos startled a bit, jolting in his seat. "The largest distribution network in the history of the galaxy gets ripped away from him, and...he snaps his fingers and finds another one! And on Venus, of all places?! The hardest place in the solar system to sell, and he just jumps right into it?! What are we even supposed to do about this, what measure can we take on Venus that we haven't already taken?!"

"Kasios, it's one dealer on a planet of billions!" Naxos said, sounding almost panicked. "We don't know what it means yet, it...it could be a couple of uncias left over from Cronus's operation, and someone just dumped it off on Venus to irritate us, or it winds up there by chance, who knows? Why get upset about it now?"

Kasios bit his cheek, tapping his fingers on the desk. "We don't know. Lot of that going around lately. Real sick of never knowing."

"Come on, Kasios. We picked up one dealer on Venus. It means nothing. Probably just had some leftover imperium from Cronus's operation and was trying to make some money. We have no reason to believe anything else is going on."

"It doesn't line up," Kasios grunted. "None of this lines up, why would Cronus ever even sell on Venus in the first place? It never made any sense, someone as smart as Cronus would have just not bothered trying on Venus in the first place. And we barely ever make arrests on Venus, it...it doesn't add up. It's almost like there was a second distributor just for Venus who's still active."

"How would a chemist be able to work with more than one distributor?" Naxos said, face wrinkling up. "Kasios, you think Cronus would have been okay with that?"

"Probably not," Kasios begrudgingly admitted. "I don't think he was okay with being blown up, either, but it still happened." He shook his head. "No, we need...we need to investigate Venus, somehow. I have a feeling a ton of imperium is moving there and we have no idea because they've found a way through the tracking system we installed there." He rose to his feet in a single motion, scooping up the cracked tablet in his right hand as he swept around the desk. "Could be thousands of libras a cycle."

"Kasios, they'll never agree to that! Orion'll be annoyed to hear it, our apparatus on Venus to catch black market imperium has spared no expense, there's nothing else we can do!" Naxos protested.

"That does sound like something he would say, yeah," Kasios said darkly. "But I have to try! No matter what's actually going on here, it's an undeniable fact that we haven't found the raw imperium supply, and we've got no leads on it. That's definitely a big deal." With that, he continued marching over towards his office door across the room.

"You know you broke that tablet, right?" Naxos asked, twisting his head around so he could watch Kasios out of the corner of his eyes. Kasios froze, suddenly lifting the tablet up in front of him, spying the chaotic arrangement of cracks across the front screen of the device. "Come on, slow down, don't march over there right now." Naxos stood up.

"Of course I knew it was broken," Kasios muttered, looking a little put-out nevertheless.

"Let's just present something at the meeting tomorrow," Naxos suggested. "It'll give us some time to decide exactly how we want to present this."

"We? Us?" Kasios repeated, raising an eyebrow as he dismissively tossed the ruined tablet to the side. "I feel like you're using some words that you're not meaning to use."

"The way I see it, Kasios, you're going to need all the help you can get if you're actually going to try to convince Orion to put _more_ resources into monitoring Venus," Naxos said wryly. "And if you happen to be right on this one, I'd like to get some credit."

Kasios sighed. "It just...bothers me. People want to act like the case is closed because we got Cronus, meanwhile there's a giant mountain of pure imperium still out there."

"Maybe," Naxos corrected. "You can't know that."

"It's only the entire galaxy depending on it," Kasios said. "Alright, we'll...we'll present my theory tomorrow. It's not as if we have any other leads on cleaning up Cronus's empire."

"

Queen Serenity winced, leaving her eyes closed for a bit longer than necessary, before slowly looking over to her right. Endymion was standing there, a folded-up sheet of paper in his right hand, held out towards her.

"Destroy this after you're done with it," Endymion said. "Just be sure you record everything."

After a brief pause, that seemed to imply some consideration of defying her husband, Serenity reached forward and took the paper.

"Vitally important that we don't lose track of where we're hiding our money," Endymion added. "I'm sure you know that."

The Queen was laying back in a reclined position on her bed, Endymion looming right next to her, his significant height on display as he towered over her. It was another typically quiet afternoon in the Earth Palace's main bedroom, a stark contrast to both the massive criminal empire that was spreading across the galaxy from it and the mental state of the Queen.

"Our parents will be coming by tonight for dinner, by the way," Endymion added, turning away after Serenity took the slip of paper. "I'm going to be trying to make dinner with my father a regular occurrence, three or four times a cycle, now that things have settled down. Up to you if you want to do the same with your mother." His words carried an air of cold professionalism that you wouldn't have expected for a conversation between a young married couple.

"Um, Endymion, what about...what about my mother?" Serenity blurted out as Endymion started to walk away from the bed. The High King slowly looked over his shoulder, casting his wife a condescending, confused glance.

"I mean, if you want your mother to have dinner here on a regular basis, you can—"

"No, no! That's not...sorry, let me back up," Serenity said, trying to sound friendly and cheerful, putting her open palms out towards her husband. "I meant, uh, Chibiusa. My mother loves her, it's mutual, really. They can't get enough of each other! W-what if, maybe, Chibiusa lived with my mother for awhile?"

Endymion's expression immediately became weary, a judgmental glare that instantly gave away his quick dismissal of the mere suggestion.

"I think they'd both like it," she continued, despite the inevitability of his reply. "And, I know...I know your opinion of this, but I...I'd feel better about it. I don't feel safe right now with her here. Just, as long as we're still doing all of this, she shouldn't be here!"

"What is wrong with you?" Endymion asked in what was halfway to a snarl. "I already told you, Chibiusa is safe. We're all safe. I'm not having my daughter grow up on another planet."

"My mother lives on the Moon!" Serenity said lamely, giving a half-hearted point up towards the ceiling. "Not that far away, we could see her every day if we wanted to! It's not even a big deal!"

"Serenity, our daughter is staying here, with her parents, who love her and know how to raise her better than anybody else. I don't want to have this conversation again," Endymion said firmly. "The only people I am currently in business with are Kunzite, Princess Venus, and Princess Mercury, so unless you suspect that one of them might want to hurt our daughter, you have nothing to be concerned about."

Obviously eager to end the discussion at that, Endymion quickly spun away and marched towards the nearby bedroom door, leaving Serenity to slowly close her eyes and tilt her head back.

She waited for the door to slam shut before opening her eyes again, twisting her head around to visually search the bedside table to her left. Immediately, she found it. A silver dagger with a golden hilt, studded with rubies, gifted to her by Princess Venus what felt like three lifetimes ago, was sitting in an iron display rack.

"

"You know, deep down, I wasn't really planning on giving up the throne until I really started feeling old," Kasios said, looking over at his son over the remnants of a course of duck meat with assorted vegetables. "I didn't want to say anything to you, I didn't know how you'd react, but I really didn't think I'd step down until after I felt like I physically and mentally couldn't do it anymore."

"Isn't that what happened?" the elder Serenity asked, seated to Kasios's right, rubbing a cloth napkin over her lip before placing it back in her lap.

"Not exactly, I...I just mean, I thought I'd be pushy sixty by the time I finally was ready to give it up. I just sort of imagined myself being the sort of person who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to retirement. But this really does feel right." He shook his head. "I had questions about you, I'll admit it, but...you're doing great."

"It hasn't even been a year yet," Endymion pointed out. "Plenty of time for me to mess things up."

The royal couple and their most recent predecessors were gathered around the cozy, yet still spacious circular glass table in a private dining room up on the second floor of the Earth Palace, specifically designed for small gatherings. Just right for four people and a multi-course dinner, the room's walls and ceiling were covered entirely by a mural of a colorful garden.

"I'm really happy I decided to just take the plunge," Kasios continued. "I could have easily just not said anything, ignored that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me to simplify my life and focus on the things most important to me. Probably had been ignoring it for years without even thinking about it, in a way, but...I finally wised up. And I think everyone's better off for it."

"Well, I'd like to think I'm doing okay so far," Endymion said lightly. "I wouldn't say I'm doing better than you."

Kasios shrugged. "I did almost bankrupt us not that long ago, so it's really not as high a bar as you're probably thinking."

"I have to admit, I was wrong too," the elder Serenity confessed, staring over at Endymion. "I had my doubts about you as a King, but...the crown suits you."

Endymion idly played with his fork for a moment. "It hasn't even been two years since that day on the Moon, when I announced our marriage." He glanced to his left, where Queen Serenity was sitting, choosing to stare at her half-eaten dinner instead of participating in the conversation. Not even two years, it's...unthinkable how much my life has changed in that short a time. The things that have happened since then, it feels more like two decades."

"And through it all, you've come out on top," Kasios said, reaching over and putting his hand on Endymion's right shoulder. "Thank you for proving yourself worthy of the throne. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to do this."

"You're quiet tonight, honey." The former Queen gave a slightly caustic look over towards her daughter. "Lot on your mind?"

"S-sure," Serenity answered. "There is."

"You know, now that I can focus all my attention on my agency work, I really feel like I might be able to finally nail this Tuxedo Mask case once and for all," Kasios continued.

"I thought Cronus was the head of that snake," Endymion said casually.

"Well, a snake doesn't store his venom in his head, does he?" Kasios said with a slightly animated tone. "It's the venom that's valuable, that's the stuff you want."

Endymion scratched the side of his head. "Actually, I'm pretty sure snakes store their venom in their head."

"Oh yeah?" Kasios asked. "Ah, well, anyway...we still don't have so much as an uncia of raw imperium to show for it. And I can't shake the feeling that someone is still out there, trying to rebuild with the scraps of what Cronus left behind. It's not over yet."

Endymion nodded. "Well, you're usually right about these hunches. The galaxy will certainly be a better place when you've closed that case."

"We should do dessert, anyone up for it?" Serenity suggested cheerfully, again glancing over towards her daughter. "Um, are you not...hungry?" She gave a mildly disapproving look at the remains of her daughter's dinner.

"Oh, just...not really in the mood for meat, dessert sounds good." Queen Serenity got to her feet. "I'll be right back, I'm just going to pop over and...use the facilities. Uh, when will dessert be here?"

"Oh, let's say...ten secundas?" Kasios suggested, Endymion taking the prompt to stand up as well and head towards the intercom hidden in the mural behind him.

"Okay, I...I will be back in ten secundas!" Serenity said, scampering off towards the door on the southern wall of the room, her mother giving her an odd look as she retreated.

"Hm," she mused as her daughter closed the door behind her on the way out. "I hate to even ask, Endymion, but—"

"Have the pie up here in ten secundas," Endymion said, leaning in towards the wall as his right hand's index finger pushed a small button nestled in among the pastel paints.

"Yes, Your Majesty," a tinny voice replied.

"What was that?" Endymion asked after turning back towards his mother-in-law.

"Um, her, I just...again, I don't like even discussing it, but she's not doing that thing where you, uh...you know, after you eat, you go...you know, lose it?" she asked, scratching her right temple and looking visibly uncomfortable.

"Oh, no, you don't have to worry about that," Endymion said easily. "Trust me, nine times out of ten, there'd be nothing left on that plate." He indicated Serenity's placemat.

The elder Serenity swallowed down hard. "Endymion, I...I'm sure she wouldn't be able to completely hide what she's doing if she's actually doing it, so I'm just going to ask." She cleared her throat. "Do you get the sense that she's doing anything to set up a coronation party?"

Endymion spun himself back into his seat at the small table. "Not really, no. I'm not really expecting much of anything to happen there, honestly, might just let it go without doing an actual party."

Serenity grimaced. "You know, I told her! I told her not that long ago, she needs to put something together, she didn't seem to understand how big a deal it was!"

"I'm not too worried about it," Endymion said quietly. "To tell the truth, we've been...having some problems lately. N-nothing too bad, but I don't think she's much in the mood to be doing something like that for me."

"Well, whatever it is, it shouldn't be bad enough for her to just ignore an event of this magnitude!" Serenity said. "I'm...I'm sorry if that's the case, Endymion. She should be able to put things like that to the side for a little bit and realize how big a deal this is."

"Hey, maybe we should do it," Kasios suggested, looking over at the former Queen. "Endymion shouldn't have to plan his own party, let's put it together. Needs to happen quickly, or the moment will be gone."

Serenity nodded. "I...I'll nudge her again first, she really should be the one handling it."

"

Queen Serenity leaned up against the lavatory's door, pressing her ear to the wooden surface, listening carefully. Just down the hall from the private dining chamber where her husband and parents were no doubt conversing about her odd behavior, Serenity was counting down beats in her head.

Twenty-four beats to a secunda, about four secundas had passed since she had left, meaning dessert would be arriving in about a hundred and fifty beats, at which point they'd start wondering why she hadn't returned yet. She shuddered a bit, her brain still fighting to convince her to back out before it was too late and simply head back to the dining room. But somehow, even though that was still a viable option at this point, she felt as if momentum had built up to the point where this was the only way forward.

She quickly walked over to the towel cabinet by the sink basin, opening the hinged door to expose a stack of pristine white towels. She lifted all of them up, exposing a hidden item underneath. The silver and gold dagger. Feeling slightly nauseous, she picked it up by the hilt, watching the light reflect off the blade as she tilted it around.

Replacing the towels and closing the cabinet door, she returned to the door, again pressing her head to it so she could listen. She had maybe five secundas before someone would come looking for her.

"

"Where is that girl?" Serenity wondered aloud as the floating silver tray was pushed into the room by a middle-aged female in palace uniform. "What's taking her so long?"

"She should just be down the hall," Endymion pointed out, standing up as the tray was wheeled up to the table. "I'll go check on her."

"No, no, you stay, I'll go," Serenity said, quickly maneuvering around the waitress and purposefully marching out of the room.

Just as the former Queen turned the corner out into the hallway, the waitress pulled the silver lid off the top of the tray, exposing a large, golden-brown pie, revealed from a puff of rising steam.

"Oh yes, there we go," Kasios said, rubbing his hands together. "Anyway, son, Seiya and his crew, make sure you cozy up with them. Their technology is going to be key in order to quickly turn the results of the deep space program into actual goods and resources."

"Oh, trust me, Seiya's my new best friend," Endymion said with a smile. "If anything, we—"

A shrill, sudden shriek killed the conversation in an instant, both men immediately falling silent and turning their attentions to the open door leading out into the Earth Palace hallway. The waitress, who was just about to start cutting the pie up into portions, also stayed her blade just a finger-length before cutting into the dough.

The High King stood up and immediately bolted for the door, practically sliding out into the hallway, looking over to his left. His mother-in-law was standing a couple dozen paces down, looking through the lavatory door on the left side, hand clasped over her mouth in shock.

"

Serenity was frozen in place, eyes as wide as the full moon. Right in front of her, clearly visible beyond any ability to deny it, was her daughter, back turned to her, head twisted around over her shoulder to look back at her with a shocked expression of her own. She was holding a fancy, decorative, yet clearly functional dagger in her right hand, the sharp edge coated with blood. And her left wrist, held up in a way that displayed it right to her mother, was a bloody horizontal cut, streaks of the sickening red substance running down her forearm towards her elbow.

The two stared at each other for several beats, the elder one not even reacting to the series of rapid-fire footsteps down the hall to her left. And then, eyelids fluttering, the Queen's body crumpled, going into a dead faint.

Her mother was snapped out of her thunderstruck state and dived forward towards her daughter, hands out, trying to catch her head before it hit the tiled floor. She managed to prevent the worst of impact with the ground, awkwardly catching her enough to slow her fall, the razor-sharp blade clattering against the tiles loudly as it slipped from the Queen's hand and bounced away.

Blood started to spread along the white gaps between the floor tiles just as Endymion braked to a stop right in front of the door, mouth dropping wide at the macabre sight in front of him. Much quicker than Serenity had, however, he shook it off and dashed inside to help.

"

"Obviously, I have a little familiarity with this sort of thing," Kasios said somberly, tightly clenching his arms over his chest and leaning up against the wall right next to his son. "But it was such a...gradual thing with her, not like this. She didn't go straight from acting completely normal to attempting suicide just like that."

"I don't think it's particularly comparable to your late wife, Your Highness," Dennis stated, standing at attention in front of the current and former High Kings, the three men standing just outside the Earth Palace's royal bedroom. "Serenity's far more in control of her actions and aware of things."

Endymion just stood there, leaning up against the wall, head bowed and expression unreadable, the remnants of stress wrinkles on his forehead just barely visible.

"I'm sure walking into a scene like that was shocking," Dennis continued, turning towards Endymion. "But if it's any consolation, Your Highness, your wife was almost certainly not in any real danger."

Endymion looked skeptical of that claim. "Tell that to the blood all over the floor."

"D-don't get me wrong, Your Highness, it's difficult to know what else she might have gotten up to if left alone for even a few more secundas," Dennis added with alarmed quickness. "We are quite fortunate that she was found so quickly, but...she actually chose one of the least effective methods of suicides."

Endymion glanced up. "You don't say?"

Dennis raised his hands up in front of him, then dragged his right index finger across his left wrist. "Contrary to popular belief, going across the wrist like that really isn't effective at doing anything except drawing blood." He mimed stabbing a knife into his forearm and dragging it down towards his hand. "Much more likely to work if you go down the arm."

"Hm," Endymion said. "Doubt I'll ever need to know any of this, but...I suppose you learn something new every day."

"S-sorry, Your Highness," Dennis said.

"No, no, go on," Endymion said, unfurling his arms and twisting his head to the right to look at his bedroom door. "This might actually be important for me to know if this becomes a recurring trend with her."

"Her cut wasn't nearly deep enough anyway," Dennis explained. "I can't yet speak to her mentality, she may very well have _wanted_ to succeed, but...she never had much of a chance like that."

"Keep this inside the palace," Endymion said, looking over at the head palace doctor. "I'm sure I don't have to say this, but I don't want the media picking this up."

Dennis nodded. "Of course, Your Majesty. In any case, she seems fine now. We'll have Diogenes do a psychiatric evaluation of her tomorrow, try to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, try to keep an eye on her. I doubt she'll make another attempt, but it can't be ruled out."

The bedroom door slowly pushed open, the elder Serenity sliding out of the room the moment it was open enough for her to squeeze out. Endymion, Kasios, and Dennis all looked at her as she emerged, the events of the night clearly showing a heavy toll on her face.

"She's really tired," Serenity said in a low voice, delicately clicking the door shut behind her.

"Did she say anything about why?" Kasios asked, crowding up close to the former Queen, hands on his hips. "Maybe she'd say something to you that she wouldn't say to a doctor."

Serenity shook her head. "No, I...I couldn't get much out of her, really. She seemed...I didn't get the sense that she was out of her mind or anything." She shrugged.

"Diogenes will get to the bottom of it," Dennis said. "She might not even really understand it herself."

Endymion looked up over his father's shoulder as his mother-in-law. "If you want to stay here for a few days while we try to figure this out, you're more than welcome to. I can understand you might be concerned about this."

"Oh, I...no, actually, I can't," Serenity said softly. "She asked me to do something, I can't...I can't stay here. She asked me to take Chibiusa up to the Moon Palace."

Endymion's body shuddered a bit, and he immediately glanced over at the bedroom door, suspicions raised. "She did?"

"Yes, well...I think it's probably a good idea. Clearly, she's going through something, she doesn't want her young daughter around." Serenity nodded. "E-even having her in the palace right now, it...it might not be good for her. Until we figure this out and resolve it, it seems like it might be a good idea to have her stay with me."

The High King nodded. "Well, I suppose so. Just take a few of the midwives with you to help, Chibiusa is really familiar with all of them." He blinked a couple times. "Did...did she suggest it?"

"Y-yes," Serenity replied. "She did, she brought it up. But I think it's a good idea."

Endymion nodded. "Sorry about tonight, you two, this isn't what I wanted at all." He slid back towards the door, grabbing the knob.

"Ah, no, it's not your fault, not at all," Kasios said quickly. "Don't worry about it, son."

"If I wasn't here, it might have been a lot worse," Serenity pointed out, nevertheless looking highly distressed even having put some significant time between her discovery and now.

"I'll go be with her," Endymion said, slowly starting to turn the doorknob. "Uh, see you all soon."

Before anyone could bring up anything else, Endymion pulled the door open as quietly as he could manage, sneaking inside his room with a wave towards his parents and the palace doctor.

The royal bedroom was dimmed significantly for the benefit of the presumably-unwell Queen, all the lights either off or muted. Serenity was tucked in underneath the bed sheets, eyes closed and head resting on the pillows. The moment Endymion closed the door, he walked over to the bed, his approach making just enough noise to catch his wife's attention. She opened her eyes and tilted her head slightly to look at him.

"Dennis didn't think much of your techniques," Endymion said, sounding almost amused, a tone which he was able to convey even in the hushed tones he spoke in. "More or less thought it was the least effective way to try to kill yourself." He stood right at the side of the bed, looking down at her prone, mostly-hidden figure.

"I'll try to do better next time," Serenity said in what was barely above a mumble.

"Oh, come on, you already fooled the person you actually needed to fool, you don't need to fool me," Endymion said, propping his right knee up on the edge of the bed. "You knew."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Serenity said, turning away from him.

"Don't worry, your mother doesn't suspect a thing, probably still too shocked to even think about questioning it," Endymion said. "But come on. You go to the lavatory for ten secundas, and you've just barely made your first cut? You had enough time in there to do way more than that. You were timing the whole thing. And what was a knife doing in there?"

"Sorry that my attempted suicide doesn't meet your standards," Serenity said tersely. "Again, I'll put more effort into my next try."

"Lots of grief you put everyone through tonight," Endymion continued. "And all to get her out of the palace for a few days. Well, when she's back here, being raised and cared for by her parents, before the end of the cycle, let me know if you think it was worth it."

"She's not coming back," Serenity deadpanned. "Not until we're done with this."

Endymion sighed, turning away from her and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "You know, I can't decide if I should be furious or impressed. You did all of that just to get what you wanted. Sure, you didn't spend very much time thinking it through, and your little act was filled with holes, but...I didn't think you'd be capable of even that much."

Serenity rose up a bit, pushing the sheets up off of her body as she sat up to look at the back of her husband. "She deserves better," she said firmly. "Chibiusa deserves better than us."

Getting frustrated now, Endymion twisted around to face her. "Can you actually tell me what Chibiusa is exactly in danger of here? Please, really, give me one actual example. Are you afraid of Princess Venus coming here and hurting her? Because to be perfectly honest, you're closer with her than I am, so if there's something you know about her, now's the time to share!"

"It's not even the danger, Endymion, you don't get it!" Serenity said, pulling herself out from underneath the sheets, getting her hackles raised. "She deserves better than to live here, with us. Here, where people just...kill people, and don't even give it a second thought, just shrug it off."

Endymion groaned. "Serenity, we've been over this."

"She's still clean. She deserves a chance to stay that way," Serenity continued.

"And I suppose you're clean?!" Endymion snapped, twisting back up into a standing position. "I suppose you're the one fit to make that judgement?!"

Serenity looked incredulous. "Of course not. I...I'm not. I'm not any better than you. Look at me, I...I was out, I had everything I wanted, and I came back, I came back to help you! I can't stop you, I can't stop helping launder your money, of course I'm no better than you. I'm just as dirty as you. I've known about this for over a year, and I haven't even turned you in. But Chibiusa, she shouldn't be here. Shouldn't be exposed to any of this."

"Well, Serenity, you'll be happy to know that you've spared her that 'exposure' for a few days, but what then?" he asked, putting his arms out to his sides. "You're going to be evaluated by a doctor starting tomorrow, and the moment he concludes there's nothing wrong with you, which there isn't, Chibiusa is coming back."

"It's not healthy for a child to be around her parents when they're fighting all the time," Serenity suggested. "If my mother thinks we're not getting along, she won't want to send Chibiusa back here."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Is that the best you can do? That won't cut it, and you know it! _We_ are her parents, Serenity, we should be the ones raising her. And your mother knows that."

"Then maybe your doctor won't conclude there's nothing wrong with me," Serenity suggested, voice monotone and flat. "Maybe he finds there is something wrong with me. I can always hurt myself again, don't think I won't."

Endymion practically snarled, turning away from her. "Then _maybe_ I just get you locked up and put under monitoring on the other side of the palace, and see to Chibiusa's care myself! Serenity, you're not winning this! You go to war with me over my own daughter, you try to take her from me, you're going to lose!" He got to his feet in a huff. "Come to terms with that, or come up with a better plan."

"

The steel and glass double doors slid back into the walls on either side, allowing just shy of a dozen people to filter out in a messy clump, out into the artificial and metallic hallway. Among this collection of individuals was Kasios, who was visibly not happy at the moment. Naxos was following close behind, both of them looking to take the first opportunity to break off from the herd.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you did anything wrong in there," Naxos said the moment the two managed to split off into a side hallway, both of them briskly moving away from their fellow High Council members.

"It doesn't," Kasios replied darkly. "Not one bit."

"You made good arguments. I think some of the stuff you said hit home with Grandmaster Orion," Naxos continued.

"Well, that's wonderful," Kasios said bitterly. "Meanwhile, if I happen to be right on this, this Tuxedo Mask, or whoever, just has free reign to sell on Venus for the rest of eternity, and we're not even going to try to stop him!"

"Alright, alright," Naxos said, putting his hand on Kasios's shoulder, stopping him in the middle of a short hallway leading up to an elevator. "Hold on. We both knew that getting Grandmaster Orion to invest more resources into monitoring Venus was unlikely. So, last night, I did think of another idea."

Kasios turned to look at Naxos, then pointed down the hallway from where they had just come. "Well, I think your moment to bring up this idea was five secundas ago, inside that meeting room."

"No, nothing with the agency, this won't even involve them, you should be able to do this by yourself," Naxos said. "Come on." He jerked his head towards the elevator down the hall, then took off towards it.

"What do you got?" Kasios asked.

"I was just thinking about this guy, Tuxedo Mask. Obviously, when he was working with Cronus, that's how he was getting all of his materials. Galen Laboratories would just send out an order form, there'd be no questions asked, of course Galen needs chemicals of every shape and size in order to produce pharmaceuticals. But how is he getting those chemicals now, without Cronus?"

"Most of them wouldn't be too hard to get," Kasios said, the two adults stepping into the open elevator, Naxos pressing the button to send the carriage zooming towards Kasios's office aboard _The Savery._

"What about boron crystal fluid?" Naxos asked. "We know he has to be using that, and you can't really just buy that anywhere. Unless he's harvesting his own boron crystals, he's probably getting it from a chemical warehouse."

"Sure. I don't see how that helps. Unless you want to spend the next ten years investigating every chemical warehouse in the galaxy in the hopes that one of them was stupid enough to not cover their tracks on inventory manifests." Kasios crossed his arms over his chest, still clearly somewhat smarting over being denied an investigation on Venus.

"You were High King until not that long ago," Naxos pointed out. "I imagine you've still got some pull with the big chemical plants. Taka Industries, SpoChem, Okwara Storage. They probably at least have some healthy respect for you."

"I hope so," Kasios said darkly. "What are you suggesting?"

"As long as you're willing to fund it personally, maybe they'll allow us to monitor their boron fluid supply," Naxos answered. "Beyond their inventory lists. If we can find out where this guy is getting his materials from now, maybe we'll be able to get a real lead."

Kasios thought for a moment. "I got some money saved up, I think."

"I hope you do," Naxos said dryly. "I've seen that retirement house on Mercury, something tells me that wasn't free."

"Alright, I'll...I'll make some calls," Kasios said, quickly looking far more eased than he had been a moment before. "That's...that's a good idea, Naxos. Thank you."


	53. The Great Spaceship Robbery

Chapter 53: The Great Spaceship Robbery

Zoisite lightly rapped his knuckles on the threshold of the open doorway, peeking inside the large, dark-toned room loaded to the brim with expensive artifacts and art, as well as curated collections of reading materials. Princess Mercury, sitting at the large desk near the back of the room, glanced up from a small stack of documents. She straightened up a bit as Zoisite walked in.

"Can I...uh…" Zoisite gestured towards the heavy wooden door. Mercury nodded, Zoisite needing no other permissions to reach over and swing it closed.

"So what's this about? Am I not meeting my quota?" Mercury asked, sounding a little caustic.

Zoisite pulled out a rectangular black device, holding it up in front of her mouth. "Just a moment, Your Highness." He stared down at a readout on the side of the object.

"I'm not recording anything," Mercury said, sounding weary.

Zoisite, though he looked rather sympathetically towards Mercury, continued to hold the device up in front of his face as he went up to the desk. "Next month, there's a museum opening on Earth. They're having a grand opening, some of the exhibits have never been seen before, I'm here to officially invite you."

"Yes, yes, I know the _official_ reason for your visit, Zoisite," Mercury said impatiently. "Just...just get to the real reason, please."

Satisfied, Zoisite pocketed the rectangular tool, standing up straight in front of the large desk, betraying at least a little discomfort at how brusque the Princess was being, as well as her less-than-settling appearance, with bags under her eyes and skin discoloration on her face. "The High King sent me to deliver a private message, yes."

"Did he send you to kill me?" Mercury asked, taking Zoisite off-guard enough to draw a bewildered, almost frightened, look. "He already sent you to lie your way into our vault, you did such a wonderful job of that, is this your next mission?"

"Of course not," Zoisite said. "It's...it's just information for you to pass along to the interested parties."

"Well, you'll just have to forgive me for assuming nothing when it comes to your High King and what he wants to do from day to day," Mercury said tersely.

Zoisite swallowed down hard. "Your Highness, manufacturing has been put on a temporary hold. There will be no new imperium shipments for now. Make sure your clients are aware that things have been delayed."

"For how long?" Mercury asked, grabbing a pen off the left side of her desk.

"Unknown. Probably just a few days," Zoisite answered, still reeling a bit from Mercury's accusations. "We were anticipating a supply of boron crystal fluid to have been delivered by now, but for currently unknown reasons, we haven't yet received it."

"Should I even bother hoping that it might be forever?" Mercury asked, hovering the pen tip over a scrap of paper on her desk for a brief moment before deciding to set the writing tool back down.

Zoisite paused, glancing around the large room slowly. "He also wanted me to ask if you happened to have access to any boron fluid that you could procure for us without it being reported as stolen. Of course, even if you did, you would lie, yes?"

"I suppose so," Mercury said. "However, even if I wouldn't lie, I would still say I have no access to anything like that. Is that all?"

"Um, right," Zoisite said, nodding. "That's all, Your Highness. Just inform your clients that future imperium shipments have been placed on hold."

Mercury waved her arm towards the door on the other side of the room behind Zoisite with a couple of jerky movements. "You'll forgive me if I'm not rooting for your success."

Zoisite turned away from the member of Mercurian royalty, sighing, sad to see hard evidence of how unhappy the Princess was with him. Of course he knew it was the case without having to see it first-hand and understood it completely, but it was nevertheless unsettling to see.

He took a few steps, then turned to glance over his shoulder back at her. She had already returned her focus to the document in front of her. "I...I have to do what he tells me, no matter what," Zoisite said. "I have no ability to refuse him. That's what being an Earth general is. Whatever he wants me to do, I have to do it."

"Then I suppose we have something in common," Mercury replied, her tone just slightly less harsh, still not lifting her gaze up.

"You, um...Your Highness, if I may," Zoisite said cautiously. "You're looking a little unhealthy."

"Not sleeping well," Mercury answered quietly. "I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing, you know. Lying, sneaking around, breaking the law." She glanced back up towards Zoisite. "It takes a toll. You, your generals, your High King, maybe you don't feel it. But I do. Spend half my day thinking about all the ways I could get caught. It's not fun."

Zoisite gave an empathetic nod. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm more sorry to feel it," Mercury countered.

"I doubt you'll get caught," Zoisite offered, unable to come up with anything more comforting than that. "You're far too smart for that."

"Well, I appreciate that," Mercury said, a sarcastic, maliceful venom in her tone that surpassed the one she had even a secunda or two before. Zoisite took the obvious hint, turning away and hurriedly retreating.

"

Kunzite held the large tablet out in front of him, screen pointing away from his chest. The image projected from the screen was a simple one. A large black barrel, tipped over onto its side so that the bottom was easily visible. A slight patch of discoloration in the black surface, while not immediately obvious, was clearly present. A small clump of painted clay was stuck to the barrel's bottom.

"We can't continue on with SpoChem. Every single boron crystal fluid barrel in the warehouse has one of these on them," Kunzite explained. The two men were standing out in the palace hangar, just outside the entry ramp of _The Bastion_ , which was docked in the private bay near the back of the hangar. Walled off, it was private enough for a sensitive conversation.

"I thought the whole point was that we were stealing it," Endymion said, grimacing as he looked at the picture on Kunzite's tablet. "Can't we just take the tracking beacon off?"

Kunzite put the tablet back to his side, folding it up close to his hip. "If we do that, it'll be obvious to the agency that we're stealing from SpoChem, and they'll increase security on their warehouses a hundredfold. If we steal a barrel, it will be the last barrel we can ever steal from them. Besides, our contact inside SpoChem already backed out. Under that heavy of an investigation they'd figure out it was her."

Endymion rubbed his right temple. "Some help she ended up being."

"Your Highness, it wasn't supposed to be like this," Kunzite assured him. "These tracker beacons weren't on anything else, just the boron crystal fluid. The agency is clearly involved, they've got eyes on SpoChem and know exactly what to look for. Our contact is certain to spend the rest of her life in a cell on _The Savery_ if she helps us, it's not worth it for anyone."

"Alright," Endymion relented. "There's more than one chemical warehouse in the universe, isn't there?"

Kunzite blinked down hard. "Your Majesty, it's going to take cycles to find another contact on the inside of another warehouse, and it's more than likely that the agency will have set up similar surveillance there as well."

"Okay, well, what do we do next then?!" Endymion snapped. "I'm not hearing any solutions here."

"I-I haven't gotten that far yet," Kunzite admitted. "I just found out about this, I called you right after I saw this."

Endymion scoffed. "We're out now, aren't we?"

Kunzite nodded. "The last batch was all we had. I triple-checked Saturn for more warehouses, there's nothing left there."

"So we get to try to pitch Seiya's crew on buying our product when we don't have any product," Endymion said darkly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Brilliant."

"Um, we should...shelve that for now, obviously," Kunzite said. "We'll figure something out, all of us are going to be devoting all of our resources into trying to find something."

"This opportunity with Seiya won't be open forever," Endymion said sternly. "The most important thing right now is that we capitalize on it."

"Um, Your Majesty, if I may," Kunzite leaned up against the side of _The Bastion_ , placing his right hand on the hull and glancing back and forth. "What's going on with Queen Serenity? That might be more important."

Endymion rolled his eyes as dismissively as he could. "Oh, she's more than fine. Trust me, she's never been better, the...schemes she cooks up in her head, I didn't know she was even capable of it!"

Kunzite rubbed his left temple, digging his fingertip hard into the skin. "Your Highness, is she going to be a problem? Remember, she knows everything about what we've done, she's fully capable of sending the entire operation crashing down."

"If she wanted to turn me in, she's had every opportunity to do so," Endymion snapped, slapping his palm against the hull absentmindedly. "She won't do it, she knows it'll ruin her as much as me."

"I understand that, but you have to admit, Your Majesty, Queen Serenity can be emotional," Kunzite pointed out.

"Oh, I _have_ to admit it?!" Endymion said, sounding semi-hysterical. "Hm, interesting, Kunzite, such a thought had never occurred to me, she's only just staging a fake suicide attempt in order to manipulate her mother into doing what she wants!"

"If she's capable of doing something like that, then she's capable of letting something slip to the wrong person in a moment of weakness," Kunzite said sternly. "You need to do something to make sure that doesn't happen."

Endymion clearly bristled at being lectured, but quickly gave a curt nod. "Just...just make sure we're actually able to do something that she could turn me in for. I doubt your precious Princess will be happy about us having to shut down manufacturing."

"

Chibiusa held the large cardboard book up in front of her face, intently focusing on the words and pictures in front of her. The young girl was sitting on her mother's lap on a luxury sofa in the main lounge room of the Moon Palace, clearly aware of the desire to show off her talents to her mom.

And of course, her grandmother as well, who was leaning up against the backrest of the couch, looking over her daughter's shoulders, three generations of Moon royalty practically lined up alongside each other.

"He had made...his own luck," Chibiusa said slowly. "He could now...provide...for his…"

"Family," her grandmother said from behind her.

"I know!" Chibiusa insisted. "Family...and to him, that was all that mattered."

Queen Serenity managed a wan smile as her daughter finished the sentence. "That's...that's really good, sweetie. You're doing great."

"She really is!" the eldest of the three Serenities chimed in. "Definitely smarter than me when I was that age, and...well, sorry honey, probably—"

"I know, I know, she's definitely smarter than me," the Queen interrupted, stroking the top of Chibiusa's head. "Smarter than me right now, probably."

"I really like that story."

Endymion entered the room from the main hallway, pulling his lapels over his chest as he did. All three generations of Moon royalty turned their heads to look at him enter. Two of them looked excited to see him.

"It's got a fantastic moral, I think. That whole idea of a man, doing whatever it takes to provide for his family, because that's the only thing that's important to him, and nothing else is even worth thinking about." Endymion leaned up on the backside of the couch, right next to his mother-in-law. "I like that."

"Everything's okay?" the elder Serenity inquired.

"Oh, yes, everything's fine," Endymion said hurriedly. "Well, it's far more important that everything's fine in here, the most important women in my life, all gathered together like this."

"Oh, we're doing fantastic," she answered. "Um, by the way, it wasn't exactly clear when you called me, are you two...planning to take her back with you today?"

"Yes, I think it's probably time," Endymion said immediately. "What, it's been ten days now?"

"Um…" Queen Serenity quickly spoke up. "A-actually, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

Endymion's nostrils flared a bit, his cheek twitching as well. "I am," he said, trying to sound strong to eliminate any possibility of a retort.

"No, no, I'm really not, I don't think I'm ready for that," Serenity insisted. "A-and, really, given your responsibilities as High King, I'm the one who ends up being...more responsible for her. So I think maybe my input should weigh more here?"

Endymion scoffed. "We are her parents, and—"

"Um, I don't mind either way," the elder Serenity said hurriedly, looking quite mortified that she had sparked an argument about Chibiusa while Chibiusa was in the room. "It's...totally fine, I don't mind at all."

The High King chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment before looking back at his wife. "Alright, I suppose we'll be...having a discussion before we leave today."

"I suppose so," Serenity replied, sounding quite tired and put-out.

"

Endymion watched as the back ramp of _The Bastion_ closed the final couple finger-lengths of distance between it and the hull, securely sealing the royal couple inside the cutting-edge spaceship. The moment the ramp had shut completely, the High King rounded on the Queen.

"I already told you how this can end," Endymion menaced. "Chibiusa is our daughter. She's going to be raised by us, that's all there is to it."

"And I already told you, she's not living there as long as you're involved in this business. She's not getting caught in the crossfire." Serenity leaned up against the port-side wall of the ship's interior. "If your...obsession with this nonsense gets us both killed, then so be it, but not her."

"Even if I was willing to entertain this nonsense, Serenity, do you think your mother is really going to be okay with raising _your_ daughter indefinitely?" Endymion asked, gesticulating towards the sealed back hatch of the ship. "She's being polite right now, that isn't going to last forever!"

"I will worry about that, she's my mother, that won't be your concern. I'll make sure she understands." Serenity nodded.

"Oh, she'll understand," Endymion grumbled. "She'll understand that something's wrong with us, and she won't rest until she finds out what it is! You are _not_ blowing everything up over some misplaced paranoia!"

"And how sure are you that I won't blow everything up anyway?" Serenity asked, turning her hard glare over towards her husband. "It's stressful, Endy, having her in the room while you're shaking hands with the worst people in the galaxy. The kind of people who might kill you and your whole family because you looked at them the wrong way."

"Serenity, we both know what happens to you if I go down," Endymion threatened.

"Under that stress, who knows what I might do?" Serenity said, voice thick and frantic. "Look what you've made me do already. You got me to fake a suicide in front of my mother." She gripped the front of her dress in her hands, wringing it around in her fingers. "You don't think I might lose control one day, let it slip? Your father's around all the time, it'd be _so_ easy to make a mistake."

The High King turned away from her in disgust. "Are you _really_ trying to blackmail me?!"

"It's not blackmail!" Serenity protested. "Endy, it's hard enough to control myself when I'm scared for myself. There is nothing you can say, nothing you can do, that can convince me we're safe, not after what happened with Cronus. You put my daughter at risk, I might just do something stupid before I can stop myself."

Endymion slowly ran his right hand down his face.

"But you know what? You give me what I want here, and you've got yourself a partner you can rely on," Serenity continued. "Alright? I won't say a word to anyone, I'll launder your money, whatever you need me to do to enable this insanity, I'll do it. But she stays here until it's done."

"Gods…" Endymion lashed his right arm out to his side, smacking his knuckles right into the metallic hull. He winced, immediately regretting his action as he drew his hand back towards his chest. Giving his hand a few shakes, he turned back towards Serenity.

"Are you okay?" Serenity asked, not sounding particularly concerned.

"Sometimes it's almost infuriating how Kunzite knows everything," Endymion muttered darkly.

"What?" Serenity looked rather befuddled.

"N-nothing, nothing," Endymion said, agitation evident in his tone. He gave the most annoyed sigh possible, putting his hands on his hips. "If we do this, your mother is your responsibility. The day she starts to wonder if there's something we're not telling her is the day she comes back to live with us."

"So we have a deal?" Serenity asked tersely, tightly crossing her arms over her chest.

"We'll visit every other day," Endymion said matter-of-factly. "She'll be less suspicious if we're at least seeing her frequently." He swallowed down hard. "And as far as your mother knows, you're seeing Diogenes for therapy sessions, ongoing."

Serenity nodded.

"Then we have a deal," Endymion said begrudgingly. "If it makes you feel any better, if I can't resolve this boron crystal fluid problem, I'll be leaving this business much sooner than anticipated."

"

"Thank you for the lovely dinner," Princess Venus said, bowing her head slightly towards Endymion. "It's a beautiful palace you have here."

"Uh-huh," Endymion grumbled, beckoning the blonde forward. "Enough of that."

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Serenity, but I couldn't help but wonder, where's Chibiusa?" Venus asked, quickly stepping through the doorway, allowing Endymion to seal the heavy door shut behind her.

"Not your concern," the High King said darkly. "And keep your shoes on at my dining table next time, this is a royal palace, not a farmhouse."

"So you were looking at me under the table?" Venus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Why would people take their shoes off in a farmhouse?" Jadeite asked. All four of Endymion's generals were gathered up next to each other against the wall on the near-side of the room, a small and basic structure with little defining it other than four walls, a ceiling, and a floor of dark, muted colors.

Endymion just shot Jadeite a piercing look, getting him to demure quickly.

"Well, moving onto things that _are_ my concern, what makes you all think you can shut down production without my input?" Venus asked, putting her hands behind her back and sizing up the four generals, not showing any intimidation at all despite being outnumbered.

The High King silently pointed at Zoisite, who stepped forward off the wall and towards the Princess, producing a small black rectangular device from his front pocket. "One moment, Your Highness," he said, holding the object up in front of his mouth as he spoke.

"Really?" Venus put her hands out to her sides incredulously. "You're afraid I'm wearing a recording device? Are you insane?" She twisted around to look at Endymion. "I had you dead to rights last year and didn't turn you in, you think I'd do it now?"

Zoisite nodded over at Endymion, who chose to not engage the Princess on his paranoia. "Shutting down production is the last thing I want to do, Venus, but we have no choice. And I think you know that."

"How would I?" Venus asked defensively.

"The agency's cut off our supply of boron fluid," Kunzite said. "Surely it must have come up in a high council meeting, they've put trackers on every single barrel of the stuff at SpoChem."

Venus couldn't help but give a tiny smirk. "The agency is treating the case as closed with Cronus dead, they don't even think you're active right now. I haven't heard a word about monitoring boron fluid supplies."

"Who else could it have been?!" Endymion snapped. "Trackers don't just materialize of their own accord."

Venus sighed. "I think your father might be running an operation on his own time. He certainly has the money and influence for it."

"Or, maybe, the agency suspects you and you're being kept out of the loop," Endymion suggested.

The Princess scoffed. "If they didn't trust me, the game would be up. Do you have any idea how easy it would be for them to discover the work I've been doing up there to hide the smuggling on Venus? I wouldn't survive an investigation that lasted more than a day."

"Well, I for one am just _brimming_ with confidence now," Endymion said, covering his face in frustration.

"Hey, buddy," Venus said competitively, turning towards the High King and pointing up towards her face with both of her index fingers. " _This_ is a face that people trust."

"Either way," Kunzite said loudly. "Even if we are able to make contact with someone else working inside a different chemical warehouse, we have no guarantee that their supply won't be monitored as well. And we can't take any course of action that results in a supply of it being reported as stolen. Even if this is Kasios acting alone, any theft will prompt a massive investigation."

"Okay?" Venus said, sounding irritated and confused. "Last I checked, there's more than one formula to synthesize imperium. Find one that uses substances you can obtain." She gestured over towards the four Earth generals, then pointed at Endymion. "The most powerful man in the galaxy and his four advisors putting their heads together couldn't figure that out? It took me less than a secunda!"

"Those formulas result in an inferior product," Endymion countered. "We have a standard to maintain, our clients have expectations of us."

"A standard to maintain?" Venus repeated. "King-man, this isn't a fried fish restaurant, you have no competition! Nobody else has anything _close_ to your product, they'll buy whatever you produce!"

"You don't get it," Endymion insisted. "Any other formula will reduce the potential output of the product by more than half, we'll be making a fraction of what we are right now. And I'm a _High_ King, by the way."

"Better than the nothing we're making right now!" Venus protested. "There happen to be a lot of moving parts on my end, Endymion, a lot of people who expect to be provided imperium and money, we can't just stop everything indefinitely."

Endymion sighed. "That's your problem, Venus. Need I remind you that our laboratory is currently outfitted to handle one specific synthesization formula, and would need to be refitted if we started another. I'm not wasting our product on inferior formulas."

"Then sell it to someone who will!" Venus suggested. "What am I missing here, do you really prefer to just let your supply sit there and collect dust while everyone makes no money?"

"I prefer to figure out a way to get boron fluid," Endymion answered simply. "I prefer to make the best, most powerful, most efficient product possible. I prefer to make the most money possible. I prefer to not waste most of my product's potential because of impatience!"

"Oh, wonderful, certainly fine by me," Venus said. "Of course, by you saying that, I'm just assuming you have some plan by which we can obtain boron fluid in the very near future. Because it'd be ridiculous to say something like that otherwise!"

"My product, my formula, my laboratory, my rules," Endymion spat back. "Boron fluid is plentiful in this galaxy. Downright common, actually. I don't accept that a man in my position can't find a way to obtain it."

Finally, the argument had run out of steam, Venus not able to come up with a direct retort to this statement. Though still not particularly convinced of his decision, clearly conveyed by her facial expression, the blonde Princess simply stood there and fumed.

"We've been turning over every stone, trying to figure out how we can get a sustainable supply of boron fluid," Nephrite said, his stern and serious demeanor doing much to bring the temperature of the room back down. "The difficulty lies in doing it in a way that won't be reported."

"Every cycle, a freighter ship leaves Jupiter," Zoisite said. "Boron crystals get harvested from the planet, and there's a facility there that sparks the reaction to produce the fluid. The fluid gets loaded onto this ship, which then transports it around the galaxy to various chemical warehouses. It's not in barrels either, they keep it all in one big tank. The whole ship is segmented, different tanks for different chemicals, each section has a faucet on the outside. That ship is probably our best chance since the fluid isn't in barrels yet, but it's still difficult to imagine how we could do it."

"And there's still the issue of doing it in a way that makes it so nobody knows anything was stolen," Kunzite pointed out.

"Which strikes me as impossible by definition," Zoisite added.

The room, once again, fell silent, Endymion pacing back and forth, everyone deep in thought over the seemingly-insurmountable problem that was placed in front of them.

"Still sounds easier than convincing this guy to be a little flexible," Princess Venus said sourly, pointing her thumb over her shoulder towards Endymion.

"The best idea we've had so far is to destroy the freighter after we've stolen the boron fluid," Jadeite said. "Destroy it in a way that makes it impossible to tell if anything was taken or just destroyed." The blond General leaned up against the near wall.

"But it's messy," Kunzite said. "Very messy. And there's a very good chance that robbery would be suspected anyway, which I'm sure would bring down the full might of the agency."

"But, if we pulled it off, we wouldn't have to worry about this again for a long time," Endymion said quietly. "That freighter ship carries several hundred culeuses worth of boron fluid every cycle."

Venus grimaced. "Well. Seems like we don't have a choice but to figure this out."

"We've got eight days before the next freighter is scheduled to depart Jupiter. So, we can count on your assistance, if we do decide to go through with this?" Kunzite asked, turning towards Venus languidly.

She sighed. "It certainly appears that way."

"

Kunzite tapped the butt of his fist against the corner of the clear glass table, activating a hologram just above the surface, of a peculiar ship design. Long and tubular in shape, the vessel was made up mostly of identical-looking compartments attached to each other, eighteen in total, looking as if you could have added more of the compartments to the rear of the ship, making it as long as you wanted.

"This is the freighter that they use," Kunzite explained, pointing at the green-glowing ship representation. "The compartments get loaded with chemicals at various facilities on Jupiter. There are four people in the cockpit at the front. Two pilots, a person to represent Jupiter's mining interests, and a person to represent the warehouses. Very valuable payload, they don't want to take any chances with it, so people are present at all times."

"If we go the messy route, we'll have to dispose of them," Nephrite said, gathered up on the opposite side of the table with Zoisite, Jadeite, and Princess Venus.

"I have a better idea. Hopefully," Kunzite said. "After being loaded, the freighter goes up beyond Jupiter's atmosphere, plots a jump course, and then begins jumping from warehouse to warehouse across the galaxy to make deliveries. That little window is our opportunity. After they leave Jupiter's atmosphere, before they jump."

"That's two secundas at most," Zoisite said, sounding a little unimpressed, arms crossed across his chest. "How fast does the faucet even pump out?"

"Two secundas at most, _unless_ we delay the ship's jump," Kunzite pointed out. "It'll have safety mechanisms active, of course, and won't jump if it detects something in its immediate path. We just have to keep something in that path."

"As much as I hate to say this, that's actually the easy part," Jadeite chimed in. "How are we going to get the fluid out?"

Kunzite pointed over towards Jadeite. "That's where you come in."

"I knew it," Jadeite muttered. "Unfortunately, we're going to have to be very close to the freighter in order for me to work effectively. As in, close enough for our ship to show up on their radar."

"Not this ship," Kunzite countered, tapping the corner of the hologram-projecting table with his fist again, getting the freighter to disappear and be replaced by a different ship, a flat, sleek looking design with short wings.

"

"Lady and Gentlemen, _The Thurloe_ ," Kunzite said, giving a large tug on the edge of a large blue blanket that was covering up a small vessel deep within the private wing of the royal palace hangar bay. The giant piece of fabric fell away onto the floor next to Kunzite, revealing a ship identical to the one he had displayed on the hologram. Flat, sleek, short wings. It wasn't that much bigger than Kunzite, and looked as if it might just barely be big enough for two people.

"Oh, that is pretty," Venus said.

"It's also a military secret," Nephrite said, casting a quick glance over towards the Princess. "An _Earth_ military secret."

"Desperate times, Nephrite," Kunzite said. "Jadeite, this will be your ship."

"I thought this was still in the testing phase," Jadeite said warily, eyeing the tiny, smooth ship over suspiciously.

"It's been tested enough," Kunzite assured him. "It works. _The Thurloe_ represents the latest and greatest in stealth technology."

"Radar-proof?" Venus asked. "That's a secret worth knowing."

"Not quite," Kunzite corrected. " _The Thurloe_ will show up on radar, but it's small enough to be dismissed as a tiny asteroid as long as the engines are off." Kunzite held his left hand up in the air, index finger extended out. "I'll be waiting nearby, above Jupiter, with _The Thurloe_ in my payload bay. When the freighter ship is emerging from Jupiter's atmosphere—" Kunzite used his right hand's index finger to simulate the freighter's path upward, then sending his left index finger towards his right one, "—I'll fire it at the ship. Not directly at the ship, that would raise the alarm, but close enough for Jadeite to do the rest of the work. Just as he's passing the freighter, he'll give _The Thurloe_ a quick burst towards it, and then latch it onto the hull." He pressed his index fingers up against each other. "The ship is small enough and flat enough to not register on any of the freighter's instrumentation once it's latched on. All we have to do is make the colors match, and it'll be almost impossible to detect."

"We should rename this ship," Zoisite said. " _The Parasite_. Latches onto the larger organism and leeches off of it."

"Yeah, about that," Jadeite said. "I'm not seeing much storage room on this ship. How am I going to steal boron fluid in this?"

"You won't be putting the fluid into the ship," Kunzite explained.

"

The white-haired Earth General held an empty black sack up in front of him, the mouth of which was a circular piece of hard plastic, the rest made of a nylon-like fabric, though it was no doubt far more secure than that. "We'll be using these."

The collection of Earth Generals and singular Venusian Princess were now in a storage room a couple floors beneath the Earth Palace, shelves of supplies weaving throughout the room. One of the boxes next to Kunzite was open, revealing a large stack of the bags, which were barely bigger than Kunzite's fist when folded up.

"Looks like...a quarter of a culeus? Maybe a fifth?" Jadeite said.

"Small enough to be dismissed as long as they pose no obvious threat to the freighter," Kunzite explained, tossing the empty sack over to Jadeite, who caught it. "Once you're latched on, you'll start. Get the mouth of these bags onto the mouth of the faucet, open the faucet for about three beats, close the faucet, seal the bag, and just let it float off. After the freighter leaves, we'll come back to collect them."

"If I had to guess, I'd say that there'll be an alarm in the cockpit if any of the faucets are opened while the ship is in flight," Zoisite pointed out.

"There most certainly will be," Kunzite agreed. "Fortunately, the blueprint for the freighter makes it clear exactly where in the cockpit this alarm will show. And someone of his abilities will be able to suppress it."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Jadeite said. "Um, Kunzite, uh...I hate to be the bottleneck here, but this is beyond my powers. You want me to control these sacks, the faucet, the alarm, I can't do all of this at once."

"Oh, I know," Kunzite said. "Fortunately, _The Thurloe_ is just barely big enough to hold two people."

Jadeite cocked his head. "If you're thinking about what I think you're thinking about, there aren't that many people in the galaxy that it'll work with."

"I've already found someone, he's being transported to one of my safehouses," Kunzite quickly addressed. "We'll go meet with him shortly." He pointed at Princess Venus. "You might want to stay away when we interact with him, if you prefer to keep your involvement a secret."

"You've got to be kidding me," Nephrite said gruffly. "You're bringing in outside assistance on this?!"

"It's not as if I like it," Kunzite said. "But there's no other way."

"Objection!" Venus said dryly. "I believe utilizing a different formula to be another way. A way that, as near as I can tell, would involve none of these absurd risks."

"Yeah, I'm...finding myself agreeing with that sentiment," Jadeite said, looking down at the sack in his hands.

"It's not our decision to make," Kunzite answered impatiently. "Now, while you're filling these sacks with boron fluid, we'll be doing everything we can to delay the ship's jump. You should be able to fill four to five bags a secunda as long as you work well with your partner."

"Could we, maybe, spend a little more time on the subject of this partner?" Jadeite asked.

"

A scarred hand passively extended out towards Jadeite, who regarded it cautiously. This despite the fact that the man who was extending said hand was all by himself, nobody on his side of the room, whereas Jadeite had his three fellow Earth Generals right alongside him. Not to mention that the man extending said hand looked perfectly agreeable and pleasant.

"Pleasure to meet you," he said. "So, you're the psychic I'll be working with?"

"Perhaps," Jadeite said, cautiously lifting his right hand to quickly shake his.

"Uh, I'm Linos," the man stated. "It's not often I get to meet someone else with the gift."

"It's not enough to have the gift," Jadeite said, still acting a little standoffish. "If you're not able to match me, you'll just get in the way out there."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about anything sir," Linos said earnestly. "I've been trained."

"You don't look like a product of Mars," Jadeite said, his defenses still up as he sized up his supposed partner.

"Oh, I'm definitely not, sir," Linos agreed. "No, I was trained by Beryl, personally. You've heard of her?"

"Yes, we have," Kunzite said, stepping forward to intrude on the awkward interaction. "Now, Linos, I'm sure you're very confused right now, being brought all the way here to meet with four Earth Generals about a criminal operation."

"Hey, you don't...you don't have to worry about anything," Linos assured the much larger man. "I don't really care about any of that. I just want to get paid and do my job."

"That's the right attitude," Kunzite said sternly. "Because men of our power and abilities can't be outrun. And if you were to tell anyone anything about this operation once it's over, then we'd have little choice but to hunt you."

"Of course, this...this isn't my first robbery, I know how it goes," Linos said. "I don't even really want to know the details, it's easier if I don't."

Kunzite cleared his throat, turning towards Jadeite.

"A-actually, sir, I'm assuming this operation you've got going here is pretty...sizable, based off what my pay is, so let me just say, if you ever need my talents in the future, I'd love to...you know, help out," Linos said. "Or maybe, if you ever wanted to meet Beryl, I can be your connection! She's a hard woman to get a hold of, obviously, but...I've got history."

"First, let's see if you're capable of helping us at all," Kunzite said, gesturing towards Jadeite. Slowly, the blond Earth General began to tug the white glove off of his right hand, using his left to loosen each finger before whisking the entire garment off. Flexing his fingers a few times, he waited for Linos to put his hand out again, then took it in his freshly-bared palm.

The faint, let unmistakable, blue glow from the contact of skin made it clear that there was a strong reaction between the two telekinetics, Jadeite's eyes widening slightly as he looked down at the pair of clasped hands.

"So, what do you think?" Linos asked, still sounding remarkably earnest and polite, a sharp contrast to his past of being trained by Beryl and his considerable powers.

"In order for our operation to be successful," Kunzite began, as Jadeite continued to feel him out. "We need you two to work as one. Many things will be happening at once, and exact, precise control will be required."

"I can do that," Linos said.

"Maybe give us a couple days to get to know each other," Jadeite suggested, gritting his teeth slightly as the blue glow between their palms began to intensify. "You know, I think this safehouse could really use some wallpaper," he said, starting to grin a bit.

As soon as Jadeite finished the sentence, a fat, leather book laying on its side on the shelf took flight, hovering in mid-air, before opening to the first page. One at a time, in rapid-fire succession, the pages of the book were ripped out by an invisible force, each one flying off to the nearest section of uncovered wall and sticking there. The three non-telekinetic Earth Generals present watched the bizarre show of book pages rapidly being plastered onto the walls, the entire section of wall being covered in a matter of beats.

"Looks like this might work," Zoisite acknowledged.

"

"I'm seeing one thing that _won't_ work, though," Nephrite said, looking over at Kunzite across a small, circular table in the back corner of the safehouse, Zoisite sitting along the side of the table and studying a blueprint of the freighter ship on a tablet. "Surely, a significant portion of the boron fluid disappearing from the freighter will be noticed. Even if they can't figure out _how_ it was stolen, it'll be reported as stolen."

Zoisite smirked from behind the tablet. "I'm just assuming that Kunzite thought of that already." He looked up at his colleague. "Don't disappoint me."

Kunzite nodded, about to start explaining the rest of his plan, when a series of rapid swishing sounds drew attention away. All three generals turned to look across the room, where Jadeite and Linos were still holding hands, using their powers to manipulate a razor-sharp machete into neatly hacking up a thick wooden post into thin slivers, the bladed weapon knifing back and forth through the tip of the post and sending small slices to the floor.

"Where'd you get that wooden post?" Zoisite asked.

"Fence out front," Jadeite answered, keeping his focus on the task at hand.

Zoisite rolled his eyes and was about to start arguing with them, but Kunzite gestured to stop him.

"Don't worry, as soon as our business with Linos is done I'm having this safehouse destroyed," he said as quietly as he could. "In any case, the act of covering our tracks is simple. We replace the boron fluid that we steal with water. The two substances weigh almost the same per volumetric unit, so it'll be quite simple."

"Too simple," Nephrite grunted. "We'll never get away with that."

"Oh, _we'll_ get away with it," Kunzite assured the brunette General. "Jupiter won't. And even Jupiter won't get more than a slap on the wrist and a docking of payment. The chemical facilities that receive the fluid will simply believe that Jupiter was trying to bolster their exports by sneaking some water in. It's a fairly simple procedure to sift the water out, and that'll be that."

"Jupiter won't like being falsely accused of that," Zoisite pointed out.

"Oh, there'll be an argument. Little back-and-forth. Ultimately, little more than the typical posturing you'd find when very wealthy entities are haggling over the cost of precious materials. It'll pass, and importantly, nobody will ever suspect theft."

"I'm not seeing how we pull this off," Nephrite said, steepling his hands in front of his face. "We're more than doubling the time we need to stall the freighter's jump, for one."

"No, we let the freighter jump, with _The Thurloe_ latched on," Kunzite explained. "But we know where it's first stop is, Uranus. All we have to do is obstruct it's path halfway through the jump, and it'll be forced to stop. We'll have sacks of water waiting there, and then we just have to stall the freighter while they refill the compartment."

"Wow," Nephrite mused, his head turned slightly to look up at the wall to his left.

"I know, I actually think it might work," Kunzite replied.

With a minimal movement of his left hand, Nephrite pointed up at the wall, drawing Kunzite's attention to it. Twisting his body around, the eldest of the active Earth Generals saw that an entire layer of white paint was being stripped off the wall in one big paper-thin sheet.

"Maybe I won't have to destroy this safehouse myself," Kunzite grunted, turning back around and looking over Nephrite's shoulder, spotting Jadeite and Linos holding their hands out towards the wall currently being stripped.

"

High King Endymion swept his vision across the royal bedroom slowly, unnecessarily checking once again to be sure he was alone in the massive room. Of course, there'd be no reason for anyone to have suddenly appeared in the last few secundas since he had last checked to make sure he was alone, but with such an important operation looming over his head, he felt extra motivated to leave nothing to chance.

"This has to work," Endymion mumbled under his breath. Suddenly, he jumped up from his seat on the corner of the royal bed, stalking over towards the bedroom door. "Has to work, has to work, has to work," he repeated quietly as he went over to the door, pressing his ear against it, listening intently.

"Freighter ship _The Autonoe_ is heading towards the jump point," Kunzite announced, Endymion hearing him clearly through a small black earpiece lodged in his right ear canal. "Leaving Jupiter's atmosphere in thirty beats."

Satisfied, Endymion pulled his ear away from the door, restlessly pacing back and forth. "Five bags equals one culeus, one culeus equals twenty-five hundred libras of product, twenty-five hundred libras...on Venus, two and three-quarters billion." Luckily, his aimless mutterings of math could be heard by no one else, as he did not have a transmitter into the conversation between his Generals, only a receiver. "Each bag, over half a billion creds."

"Twenty beats," Kunzite said.

"

Kunzite leaned forward, quickly examining some of the data on a screen in front of him in the cockpit of the reconstructed _Falconeri_. "Jadeite, Linos, prepare."

Looking out at a wide, expansive view of Jupiter and a slice of deep space beyond it from a couple thousand dolichos away, Kunzite placed his right hand's index finger on a red button on the right side of the center console. His left hand went up above his head, flicking a switch, causing his view out the front window to zoom in heavily towards Jupiter.

Sure enough, he soon spotted _The Autonoe_ , zipping upwards and away from the planet, mere moments away from passing through orbit.

"Launching," Kunzite said, pressing the red button.

"

A hatch on the bottom side of _The Falconeri_ opened and _The Thurloe_ was fired out from it, zipping towards Jupiter at tremendous speed. Entirely dependent on the momentum imparted on it by the launcher in _The Falconeri_ , the revolutionary stealth-ship's engines were powered off, meaning it would be easily dismissed as a piece of space debris or a small asteroid, only worthy of consideration if it became an immediate threat.

Inside the tiny ship, Jadeite and Linos were lying prone, just barely enough room for the both of them. Each had their eyes glued to the informational screen that was projected along the top side of the ship's interior hull, giving them enough of a view outside to have a good understanding of where they were relative to the freighter ship and the planet.

"Your trajectory looks good from here," Kunzite said, his voice feeding into earpieces that Jadeite and Linos both wore. "Ten beats until you pass."

The blond Earth General reached up to a panel of buttons on the right side of the screen with his right hand, while his left hand reached over towards his partner, who took it in his right.

" _The Autonoe_ has breached the atmosphere," Kunzite reported.

Jadeite pressed one of the buttons above his head. The ship's engine hummed alive just as it was passing the larger freighter ship underneath it, giving it just enough of a push to turn it right towards its underside. Giving it a second quick burst of power to flip it around so it was oriented properly, _The Thurloe_ neatly slapped itself right into the base of the freighter, latching on securely.

"

"Whoa!"

"What's up?"

Kallias stared down at the blipping green-screened radar built into the console right in front of him. He could feel the eyes of his three fellow crewmen aboard the cockpit of _The Autonoe_ staring at the back of his head as he tried to figure out what had just caused the ship's radar to blast a warning signal for a brief moment.

He reached forward, tapping the screen with his finger a couple times. No indications of any disturbances or danger, nothing but a blank screen. No alarms blaring complaints of hull damage either. Finally, he shrugged.

"Thought I saw a power signature right beneath us," Kallias muttered. "I guess not."

"What do you mean, you guess not?" Georgius asked. "That's kind of a big deal."

"No, it's nothing, it's nothing," Kallias insisted. "It didn't even last long enough to trigger the actual alarm, probably a graphical glitch." He reached up and toggled a switch above his head, checking another screen in front of him. "Hull is undamaged, we're fine."

"First stop, Uranus," Tychon said. "Plot the jump."

"Unless you think the ship's hardware is faulty," Theodosia chimed in from next to Tychon in the back seats of the cockpit. "Kallias, your call."

"

Kunzite winced, leaning in towards a speaker built into the center console, knowing that the entire operation was over if the crew of _The Autonoe_ decided to postpone the delivery and head back to Jupiter.

"No, no, we're fine," Kallias said, Kunzite hearing his voice through mild static from the speaker. "Plotting jump now."

Kunzite wasted only half a beat on a sigh of relief. "Phase one is successful, proceed to phase two."

"

"Right," Jadeite answered, not wanting to waste any more syllables on a reply than that. He and Linos were heavily focused on quickly offloading the boron fluid from the freighter, knowing that every beat counted.

A small hatch on the outside left wing of _The Thurloe_ was open, revealing a hidden compartment packed with the black bags, each one neatly packed up to be as small as possible. One of the sacks was already whipping up to the right side of the ship, the mouth wrapping around the faucet attached to the fourth compartment from the cockpit.

As soon as the mouth of the sack had formed a seal, a steel lever right next to it was telekinetically pulled forward, causing a powerful flood of boron fluid to pour into the small sack. This, of course, would have caused an alarm to start sounding off in the cockpit, but the combined power and co-operation of two powerful telekinetics was enough to force the ship's hardware to suppress it.

It took only three beats for the bag to be filled to capacity, at which point the lever was put back into its original position and the bag was detached. Sealed, the contents safe for the time being, it was allowed to aimlessly float, away from _The Autonoe_ , another empty sack coming to take its place.

Already, both of the young powerful psychics were starting to sweat, both from being crammed in such tight quarters and from the exertion of focusing on so many different tasks at once. Jadeite wiped the back of his gloved hand across his brow.

"

"V, prepare to move into position."

"Copy," Princess Venus said, turning her ship slightly to the right, aligning herself so it would be only a quick burst forward to the coordinates programmed into her navigator.

"Not yet," Kunzite followed up. "The longer it takes for their jump route to be impeded, the longer we'll have."

The Princess was in a simple B-class vessel that they had rented out for the day, anonymous and forgettable, not associated with her or the Earth Generals in any obvious way. Not even christened with a real name, it was simply known as _TLV-122_.

"Isis, Aphrodite, be ready," Venus called out. "Just in case we need additional stalling."

"Yes, Your Highness," was the quick reply through the communicator system.

"

Endymion's heel was bouncing up and down on the floor, as he had again taken his spot on the corner of the bed, exuding nervous energy despite being countless dolichos away from the attempted theft.

"Not on Venus...not on Venus…" Endymion continued to mumble assorted thoughts in an effort to calm himself. "Other planets, maybe...maybe eight hundred million creds a bag, seven-fifty at worst. Negotiate a better deal, seventy percent, less overhead." He was practically bouncing up and down on the corner of his mattress. "Seiya...Seiya…"

"V, now," Kunzite ordered.

"

Kallias was just about to reach forward to engage the ship jump procedure after receiving a go-ahead from _The Autonoe's_ navigation system, only for a series of flashing red lights to pop up across the front dashboard.

"Yikes," Kallias said. "Looks like we're obstructed."

"Alright, just turn the jump on," Georgius said. "I'm sure whatever it is, it'll move out of the way in a couple beats."

Kallias pushed the button on the center console, sending a signal to the ship's jump engine to engage as soon as the navigation computer was satisfied that the immediate path forward was obstruction-free.

"

"Jump has been successfully delayed," Kunzite announced, rapidly scrolling through data readouts on _The Falconeri's_ main display. "The jump engine is sitting idle. V, hold position. Jadeite, progress report."

"

"Eleven," Jadeite answered, again keeping his words to a minimum. Him and Linos were both sweating as if they were in a sauna, using every last bit of their powers to keep a steady flow of sacks going over to the boron fluid faucet. Already, almost a dozen of the filled containers were lazily spinning off into deep space. But they were only just getting started.

Fortunately, the task was quite repetitive, so they were starting to work themselves into a solid rhythm. With each new sack of stolen goods, their timing got better, and their efficiency was on the rise.

"

"Seiya...higher demand, higher cost," Endymion continued, looking as if he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown as he listened to the communications his Generals were making. "No distributors to pay, maybe. Either way...one billion creds a sack? One point one?"

The High King jumped back to his feet, quickly pacing over to the bedside table to grab a bottle of a light brown liquid. Skipping the glass, he simply ripped the cap off and took a swig from it.

"Average it, eight-fifty a sack, fifty sacks over forty-two billion, sixty sacks fifty-one billion." Sighing wearily, Endymion walked towards the middle of the room, bottle in hand. "Five hundred libras of product per sack…we need more...we need more...come on, come on, come on."

"

"Well, this is weird," Kallias said, tapping his hands against his lap. The alerts warning of an obstruction in the ship's jump path were still blinking after more than a secunda of waiting. "Whatever it is, it should have cleared our path by now."

"Doesn't make any sense, why would a ship just stop in the middle of space?" Georgius added.

"Is it a ship?" Theodosia asked. "Can we hail it and ask it to move?"

"H-hold on," Kallias said, reaching down to his right and pulling a lever back, then pushing it back forward. "I'm restarting the jump calculator, maybe it's just not updating."

"I don't know how I feel about riding in a ship that has a jump navigator that doesn't update," Georgius pointed out as the center console began displaying jump route data.

"Well…"

After a moment, the warning lights began to blink again.

"Rest assured, we're not, the calculator is fine. There's just someone in front of us who won't move," Kallias said simply. "I'll try hailing."

"Let's just change the route, make two jumps," Tychon suggested. "Angle off to the right, go halfway, then angle back."

"I'd prefer not to do that," Kallias said, tapping a few keys in front of him. "Uses more imperium to make two jumps."

"

"I'm hailing the ship now, just one moment."

Kunzite leaned back in the pilot seat. "V, you're getting hailed?"

"Yes," Venus replied through the earpiece. "More than happy to ignore it."

"It doesn't look like it's moving to adjust course," Kunzite reported. "If they're fuel-conscious, this'll be even easier."

"Forty," Jadeite announced through the communicators.

"

"Forty, forty, forty," Endymion repeated to himself, starting to sweat, hands nervously clenched behind his back as he paced around his carpeted bedroom floor. "Has to be more, has to be more, come on, come on."

He nearly jumped to the ceiling as his communicator started to vibrate, rattling hard against the end table up by his side of the bed. He glanced at it, spending maybe half a beat on thinking about answering before he dismissed the notion, returning to his aimless rambling.

"Five thousand libras every ten days...possible, thirty sacks last one cycle." He took another large swig from the bottle.

"

"No response," Kallias said. "Not even a ping."

"Are you even sure it's a ship?" Tychon asked.

"Definitely a ship," Kallias assured him. "I mean, we've been drifting in Jupiter's orbit this whole time, that alone should have pushed it out of our path. Bizarre."

"Let's just move the ship up a little bit or something," Georgius suggested, pointing his finger up above his head. "We can't wait forever."

"Right," Kallias agreed. "I'm taking us up." He deactivated the jump, then began guiding the booster engines with a pair of black joysticks to his left and right.

"

"Should be good in a secunda or two," Kallias said, Kunzite hearing him over the speaker.

"V, ship is about to move upward, adjust trajectory to remain in the jump path," Kunzite ordered.

"

"On it," Venus replied, giving her own booster joysticks a couple of nudges to get her ship to move in approximate parallel with _The Autonoe_. "Still waiting for this to somehow end with all of us getting vaporized in a massive jump collision that causes tremors on the other side of the asteroid belt."

"I would never put you in that position, Venus," Kunzite said through the multi-way communicator.

"Me, on the other hand, that's a different story," Zoisite chimed in.

"No, just Jadeite," Kunzite countered. "Zoisite, how are you two doing?"

"

Millions of dolichos away, Zoisite glanced to his left towards Nephrite, sitting in the co-pilot seat on the left side of the cockpit. Out in the middle of space, nothing of notice in any direction to mark this area of space as different than just about any other, they were waiting in a C-class luxury cruiser.

"Just waiting," Zoisite answered. "Very much doubting that this is going to work the way we think it's going to."

"Don't look at me," Venus said dryly. "I just wanted to use a different formula."

"

Endymion's nose wrinkled as he finally felt an emotion other than fear and anxiety.

"Can't wait to be rid of this bitch," he grumbled to himself.

"

"Let's just try to think positive," Kunzite suggested, again leaning up towards the speaker in his center console. "They should realize something's wrong any moment now."

"

"Okay, what the hell?" Georgius said the moment the red flashing lights went off again, signifying that their jump route was still being impeded. "I've never had anything like this happen before, this ship isn't even that big!"

"We don't even know if it's the same ship," Kallias pointed out. "Although, it'd be just as peculiar if it wasn't."

"Okay, this is ridiculous, just change the destination point and make two jumps!" Tychon snapped from the back seat. "What are we going to do, play peek-a-boo with some practical joker all day?!"

"There's no way this is intentional," Kallias argued. "Alright, alright, just...let me play with the boosters a little more, I'll take us up a little bit more."

"

Kunzite used a small white hand towel to wipe his face off. "Jadeite?" he asked.

"Ninety," Jadeite's quick reply was still noticeably labored, betraying his exhaustion.

"Okay," Kunzite grunted. "V, hold position, phase two is complete. Stand by for fluid retrieval after _The Autonoe_ leaves."

"Sounds good," Venus responded.

"Jadeite, Linos, get ready, we'll have a very small window once their jump navigator gives them the go-ahead," Kunzite said.

"

The inside of _The Thurloe_ could have passed for an oven now, both occupants losing buckets worth of sweat.

"Would...would a coolant unit make this ship _that_ much bigger?" Jadeite panted. "When we get back...I'd like to make that suggestion to the engineers."

"Focus!" Kunzite commanded. "Wait for the signal."

"

"If this goes on much longer, I'll just call down to the surface and get them to figure this out," Kallias explained. "Honestly—"

Suddenly, the blinking red lights all turned off, the navigation calculator trilling a soft little sound cue.

"Ah ha!" Kallias said. "There, nothing to worry about." Before another obstruction could move into the jump path, he reached forward to activate the jump.

"

"Now!" Kunzite said sharply, Jadeite and Linos both wincing slightly at the volume of the order in their ears.

Linos raised his right hand up and twitched his finger.

"

Just before Kallias could activate the jump, the engine of the ship shut off, leaving the lead pilot of _The Autonoe_ pressing a button that had no effect.

"

 _Shhnk!_

The glass bottle of alcoholic drink broke at the neck as Endymion squeezed it far too tightly, sending the body of the jug crashing down at his feet, tipping over on contact with the carpet and spilling its contents into the thick fibers.

The High King barely noticed, simply walking away from the mess he had just created, all of his focus on listening to the conversation in his ear.

"Jump prevented," Kunzite reported, Endymion breathing a sigh of relief. "Now we just have to hope."

Endymion, feeling the tension in his body slacken a bit, finally looked down at his right hand on feeling an odd damp presence on it. A trickle of blood was running down his fingers, a cut on his palm now starting to ooze out the thin fluid.

"Gods," he muttered, quickly running across his room to the bathing chamber.

"Keep filling those bags," Kunzite said. "And pray they don't decide to abort."

"

"It just shut off, I didn't do anything!" Kallias said, reaching down and cranking the lever to restart the jump engine. Sure enough, it reactivated as if nothing was wrong, the previous coordinates still punched in and the calculator waiting to be told to check the course. "Yeah, everything looks fine, it just...shut off."

"Well, hold on," Theodoria said, reaching her left hand forward and placing it on Kallias's shoulder. "Is this ship even safe to fly on? If the engine can just turn off like that, should we even be flying this?"

"Um...it seems fine now," Kallias said. "Georgius, did you bump something?"

"Definitely not!" the co-pilot said immediately. "I didn't do anything."

"Maybe it automatically shuts off if it idles for too long?" Tychon suggested. "Some sort of energy saving measure?"

"Uhhh...maybe," Kallias answered, flicking through settings on his console.

"Should we really be doing this, this really doesn't seem safe to me," Theodoria reiterated.

"I'll run a diagnostic scan," Kallias said. "This'll take a couple secundas."

"

"Beautiful," Kunzite muttered. "Jadeite, Linos, keep going, it'll take them some time to sort this out."

"What does their conversation sound like?" Nephrite asked. "Any indication what they're leaning?"

Kunzite tapped his fingers on the control panel. "The woman sounded concerned. Theodoria, she seems like she might be leaning abort. I'm not sure though, the diagnostic should come back clean. These are valuable chemicals, the facilities get antsy when the shipments get postponed."

"If they abort and go back to Jupiter, then the operation isn't just a failure," Princess Venus pointed out. "We'll be getting caught with our hand in the cookie jar for sure."

"Tell me something I don't know," Kunzite said.

"

"Hundred forty," Jadeite said, running his right sleeve over his face, trying to pick up as much perspiration as possible.

"You're doing great," Kunzite replied.

The left-wing compartment of the stealth ship had already been emptied of all the sacks, a hundred little round containers bobbing about through space, and the two psychics were now utilizing the ones stashed in the right-wing compartment, now managing to get through the process in a neat assembly line.

"Ever had to...exert yourself like this before?" Linos asked, the two of them having the procedure down to a science now.

"Yeah," Jadeite answered raggedly. "But that time I was actually enjoying myself. And I wasn't with a guy when it happened."

"Ah," Linos said, nodding. "I feel that."

"Stop clowning around," Kunzite ordered.

"

"And be ready to act quickly, the diagnostic is finished," he added, leaning back in towards the speaker in his center console.

"Yeah, the test is clean, everything in the engine and central computer is operating fine," Kallias insisted.

"

"What runs the diagnostic?" Tychon asked. "The computer? So the central computer tests itself and finds nothing wrong?"

"No, it's...it's a separate system that runs the diagnostic," Kallias said. "Of course, it'd have to be or else it's worthless."

"Well, you're the lead pilot," Tychon said, leaning up to look over at Kallias. "It's your call, as far as I'm concerned."

"I don't see anything wrong with this ship," Kallias insisted. "Seriously, I checked the settings manually, everything's fine."

"So what, the ship's just haunted then?" Theodosia suggested, putting her hands out to her side in exasperation. "All the weird things that have already happened, just...the Gods having fun with us?"

"I've been flying ships for decades, I've run into bizarre computer hiccups more than once," Kallias said defensively. "Look, maybe...maybe we're all on edge because of what happened to that ship over Saturn a few cycles ago, but...that was a bomb, it wasn't a faulty computer or anything like that."

Georgius cleared his throat. "The jump engine is giving the go-ahead now, let's...I say we do it."

"

Kunzite closed his eyes, intently focused on the conversation he was eavesdropping on, hoping that the pilots might get their way. He felt truly foolish for having to bet everything on a plan that left things to chance like this, but given time constraints he had no other choice.

"O-okay, go ahead," Theodosia said. "B-but any more problems, and I _insist_ we turn back."

"Got it," Kallias said. "Alright, jumping in five beats."

Kunzite stabbed his fingertips down hard into his thighs. "Jadeite, they're jumping, close everything up!"

"

One final sack of boron fluid inflated like a balloon before being sealed, the bulb of precious chemicals now floating aimlessly along Jupiter's orbit with over one hundred and eighty of its brothers. The chemical faucet tightly shut once again, both Jadeite and Linos were finally allowed a moment of respite. As _The Autonoe_ launched off, moving away from the galaxy's sun and towards Uranus, Jadeite reached down between the two and opened a square metallic container.

Inbetween a series of cold packs were two canteens, Jadeite not wasting any time in grabbing one of them, Linos snatching the other. Each was filled to the brim with a liquid concoction that would provide a massive, perhaps even unhealthy, shot of energy and adrenaline, preventing them from passing out and giving them enough to keep going for the next phase of their plan.

"Shit, man," Linos said after finally ripping his lips away from the mouth of the canteen. "Maybe we needed a third."

"In this ship? To hell with that," Jadeite said, laying his head back. "Just...just keep yourself awake. The drink will re-energize you, it just needs a little time."

"Halfway home," Linos said faux-cheerfully, picking at the front of his shirt, which was completely drenched in sweat.

"

Not seeing any reason to waste any time, Kunzite was now zipping _The Falconeri_ through Jupiter's orbital lane, nearly two hundred transmitters having just been activated from each of the little boron fluid sacks. It would be a simple matter to scoop them up into the cargo hold of his ship using the miniature beacon he had installed just days prior. Catching each bulb in the containment field, one by one, pulling it up inside the ship.

"How many total?" Princess Venus asked through the communicator system.

"One hundred and eighty-seven," Kunzite answered, looking down at the list of transmitters on one of the screens being projected onto his display.

"Well. I suppose by some definition, it was worth it," Venus mused. "I'll be there in just a couple secundas to help out."

"Nephrite, be ready to move into position, they'll be there in about two minutas," Kunzite ordered.

"

"Alright, timing is everything here," Zoisite said firmly, leaning up towards the main controls of their spacecraft, watching a series of timers on the front window. "And remember, every beat counts, the more time we can waste, the better."

Nephrite was standing on the left side of the cockpit chamber, left hand clenched around a large red lever handle. He nodded solemnly.

"Moving into their jump path now, they should be forced out of their jump in instrumentation range of us," Zoisite muttered. Of course, as always, there were safeguards in place to make sure that a jump collision was impossible, but the thought of somehow managing to time things just right so that _The Autonoe_ wouldn't be able to stop in time and smash right into them did cross his mind.

With a nudge of the controls, the ship's thrusters activated and pushed the vessel over to the right from the perspective of the cockpit.

"Release!" Zoisite commanded as he gave the ship a final push backwards before disabling the engines. Nephrite pulled the lever, causing the cargo hold doors to swing wide open, releasing a collection of several hundred sealed sacks filled with water out into the vacuum of space. Identical to the ones they used to steal boron fluid, these containers were once again small enough to not be detected by a ship's instrumentation as long as they weren't moving at dangerous speeds, as well as being nearly impossible to see with the naked eye due to their coloring.

Still, it seemed almost obscene, what they were trying to get away with.

"

All four hearts in the cockpit of _The Autonoe_ leapt up into the throats of their respective owners as a series of alarms started blaring, the freighter ship suddenly ripped out of jump speed and automatically forced to a halt. Fortunately, before anyone could actually voice their panic, it became clear that it was just a safety mechanism kicking in.

"What is going on today?!" Georgius exclaimed as he began scanning the ship readouts.

"Space is massive, how can this happen twice in one trip?" Kallias grunted. "Should play the lottery tonight when we get back I guess."

"Oh, here it is!" Georgius announced, pointing at one of the radar readouts and getting it to show on the front window. "Yup, that's a ship, you can see it right there." He pointed up at the screen.

"Alright, it should be pushed out of our path in a secunda," Tychon said.

"Wait," Kallias said cautiously, looking up at the radar. "I think it's sending a distress signal, look."

"Oh, yeah, shit," Georgius said, craning his neck up. "Yeah, looks like it."

"Well, I'm sure someone will be along shortly to help them out then," Theodosia said. " They're not that far away from Uranus."

"No, no, the signal is weak, something's not right," Kallias said. "We're barely picking it up over here, nobody's going to pick that up on Uranus."

"The engine's off too, they might be in real trouble," Georgius concurred. "Let's get closer and try a hail, if their distress signal is that weak I'll bet they won't be able to communicate unless we're right near them."

Kallias pushed the ship forward through space, closing the distance between them and the seemingly-stuck ship.

"

"Okay, okay," Jadeite panted, holding his hand up again, allowing Linos to grab it in his.

"Are we really going to get away with this?" Linos asked, reaching up to feel his face with his off-hand.

"If we don't, I hope they catch us _before_ we finish refilling the tank," Jadeite said, flicking his finger slightly, the right-wing hidden compartment of _The Thurloe_ sliding open on his mental cue. A handful of empty, rolled up bags were still inside the storage space, but underneath them was a short length of a thick black hose, about half a pace-long, with one end having a much larger mouth than the other. Snaking up to the top side of the freighter this time, the hose quickly latched its larger end onto a nozzle on the top of the boron fluid compartment.

" _The Autonoe_ is moving closer, you should be within range of the water sacks any time now," Nephrite reported. "We have no idea how much time we're going to be able to buy, be fast."

"One hundred and eighty-seven," Linos mumbled.

"One hundred and eighty-seven," Jadeite repeated in agreement.

As the ship they were latched onto slowly closed in on the seemingly dead vessel, both of the powerful practitioners of telekinesis felt the presence of bloated water bags all around them. Seeing no need to wait, they began to work together to grab one and yank it towards the waiting hose on top of the freighter ship. The mouth of the sealed container was locked into place on the smaller end of the tube, then the bag deflated into a crumpled mass, pushing all the water into the tank.

The moment the contents had been emptied, the bag unlocked from the end of the hose and fluttered away, discarded as refuse. Another identical sack was pulled towards the top side of the freighter.

"

"Hello? Hello?" Kallias called out, leaning forward to stare out the front window of the cockpit at the deactivated ship in front of him. "This is _The Autonoe_ , we picked up your distress signal, please respond."

Nothing. Kallias took his finger off the radio button in front of him.

"You don't suppose they're dead?" Tychon suggested. "Who knows how long they've been stranded."

"We're not really equipped for this sort of thing," Kallias said. "Can't even scan the ship for lifeforms. I'll take us a little closer."

"Hello! Hello?!"

Kallias practically jumped out of the pilot seat, then leaned forward to hit the radio button again. "Receiving! You can hear us?"

"Yes, yes we can! Oh, thank the Gods, I thought we were in some real trouble!"

Theodosia sighed. "That's a relief."

Kallias cleared his throat. "We're, uh...we're passing through to make a delivery, you drifted into our jump lane. What's the problem?"

The communication line was filled with static, betraying a very weak signal.

"I, uh...we're on our way to Jupiter, going to meet some family."

"

Zoisite, finger neatly up against the radio button of his own center console, furrowed his brow as he considered the best possible way to stretch out the conversation. "My father, a couple younger brothers and sisters, haven't seen them in a little while. Um, my younger brother's birthday is tomorrow, actually."

"Sure, sure, okay, what happened?" Kallias asked through the crackling connection.

"Mid-jump, the ship just died on us," Zoisite explained. "Um, engines, boosters, pretty much everything except life support. It just happened less than a minuta ago. Our transmitter barely has any life in it too, we turned it on, but the range on the signal isn't anywhere near strong enough to help."

"You got that right," Kallias answered. "Well, today's your lucky day, I'll flip on my distress signal and we'll get someone over here to help out."

"Oh, thank you so much," Zoisite said, doing his best to convey relief through the highly garbled audio connection. "I wasn't sure what we were going to do, none of our personal communicators have enough range either."

Nephrite got to his feet and turned to leave the cockpit, bringing his right hand up to his collar. "We've got them stalled, you should have plenty of time."

"

It was almost obscene, how brazen their little trickery was. How they were betting everything on the crew of _The Autonoe_ not realizing what was happening right above their heads, right behind their backs.

While Zoisite was exercising his acting chops in trying to sell the image of an unlucky traveler who needed a good samaritan, Jadeite and Linos had gathered a veritable cloud of water sacks, all of them floating just above the top side of _The Autonoe_ , waiting their turn. One by one, they'd connect to the open end of the hose, deflate their payload into the tank, then be discarded to the mercy of infinite space. It almost resembled a colony of ants, each one waiting to offer the toils of their day's labor to the Queen before running off to continue work.

Both Jadeite and Linos were again quickly exhausting themselves, their artificial energy augmentation wearing off fast. Even with the two of them working in unison, their powers were not meant to be utilized for this long while juggling so many different tasks.

"Just...hope they don't...look up," Jadeite said, managing a weak smile amid his sweat-soaked face.

"Kinda having second thoughts...about the whole...helping out in the future thing," Linos said.

"Me too," Jadeite grunted.

"

"One hundred eighty-seven," Endymion muttered to himself, arms folded tightly over his chest, hunched over, heart racing as his mind worked overtime trying to comprehend the fruits of this operation, and what they meant for him going forward.

The royal bedroom was still empty and peaceful, outside of the mess of glass and alcohol in the middle of the carpet, still providing perhaps the most ironic place for the High King of Earth to be approaching the point of a mental breakdown.

"One eighty-seven, ninety-three thousand libras, over a hundred billion on Venus, and...and with…"

"We have a problem!" Nephrite's deep, masculine voice snapped Endymion out of his tangle of thoughts, his right hand reaching up to press the earpiece deeper into his ear.

"

The brown-haired General was staring out one of the port-side windows of their temporary spaceship, eyeing a B-class cruiser with overly large thrusters on the back side. "Our tow ship is here," he said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, wow!" Zoisite said, holding his mouth up to the microphone built into the main controls. "I did _not_ expect this kind of response time!"

"Yeah, I wasn't far away, and was helping with some debris cleanup. Dead engine?"

"Dead everything, actually." The third ship activated a tractor beam, enveloping the dormant one in it.

"Jadeite, how are we doing?" Nephrite asked.

"Fifty," was the throaty response through Nephrite's ear. The burly General sprinted back into the cockpit, ripping the door open and leaning in, drawing Zoisite's attention before holding up all five fingers on his right hand and making a zero with the thumb and index finger of his left hand.

"Alright, we'll get you out of here, figure out what's wrong," the tow ship said. " _The Autonoe_ , thank you for your kindness today, who knows what might have happened if you weren't around."

"Wait!" Zoisite said, glancing down at the readouts beneath him, seeing that their ship was indeed now completely under the control of the tractor beam, meaning it would be moving along with the tow ship whenever it started. "Um...sir, before we do this...we should hash out payment. I mean, you're towing us, we should pay you for that, right?"

"We'll worry about that when we get you to Jupiter," was the reply.

"A-are you sure, you don't want to...get paid first?" Zoisite continued, milking out every syllable for all he could.

"Look, we're already running behind," Kallias interjected. "Could you two at least get out of our jump lane so we can get to Uranus?"

"...a-and, well, what about you guys?" Zoisite twisted around, looking at Nephrite, who was now holding up three fingers with his right hand and five on his left. "You guys stopped for us, used your distress signal, without...without you guys, we'd probably be stranded. Dead, maybe. We should pay you."

"

Kunzite massaged the bridge of his nose, listening in on the conversation, frustrated that he was helpless to influence anything at this point. The boron fluid pickups over Jupiter had concluded without issue, all one hundred and eighty-seven sacks safely within the cargo hold of _The Falconeri_ , and Kunzite was now ripping through space towards where _The Autonoe_ had been waylaid, intent on picking up _The Thurloe_ after its job had been completely.

"Jadeite, listen to me," Kunzite said, sensing that Zoisite's attempt at stalling might be about to run out of fuel. "You _have_ to detach before _The Autonoe_ jumps. If you're a little water short, we'll just have to hope it's close enough. If you're still latched on, the operation is blown."

"Got it," Jadeite said. "Twenty."

"

"Endymion's knuckles were white in his lap as he clenched them harder than he had ever clenched them before, stomach doing flips and nausea starting to kick in. He was sitting on the corner of his bed again, no longer able to stand.

"Come on, come on, come on," he muttered, now completely focused only on the last couple steps that separated them from a clean theft.

"Look, guys, my name is Kallias, this ship is named _The Autonoe_ , if you want to pay us, just contact Jupiter and tell them the name of the ship, we'll figure something out then, but right now we need to get going."

Endymion practically shoved the receiver all the way up his ear canal.

"

"Alright, we're moving!"

The tow ship's back engines roared to life, outputting enough power to pull both vessels through space with ease, clearing the jump lane. Kallias's jump calculator immediately started trilling an affirmative message, signalling that the path ahead was now cleared and a jump could be engaged.

"Alright, finally!" Georgius said in exasperation. "Damn, what's going on today!"

"Jumping!" Kallias announced, not wanting to wait for anything else to happen, reaching forward towards the button that would engage the full power of the engines.

"

Jadeite heard Kunzite's loud, authoritative order to detach from the freighter, just barely managing to be understood by him over the loud buzzing in his ears from the pure exhaustion that soaked every fiber of his being. He was also vaguely aware, thanks to the connection between him and Linos, that they were just four sacks short.

Operating on instinct, he twitched his free hand's index finger, mentally picturing the freighter's cockpit.

"

 _Pop!_

The overhead light just above Kallias, used for illuminating the main dashboard, blinked out, pausing his finger just before it hit the jump button.

"What was that?!" Tychon asked, staring up at the tiny little fixture that had just stopped producing light.

"Damn thing popped," Kallias said dismissively, nevertheless annoyed. He scratched his mustache. "What else can happen today?"

"We have replacement lights in storage, we'll just swap the bulb out when we get to Uranus." Georgius pointed over in front of Kallias. "Now let's go. Unless you need the light to see the button."

Kallias sighed. "Jumping." He reached forward yet again.

"

The final required container of water, now empty, spun off in a random direction, free to roam the universe forever so long as no outside forces acted on it. The hose was quick to follow, detaching from the nozzle atop _The Autonoe_ and being discarded like a used tissue.

Jadeite rammed his thumb down on a large red button on the right side of the controls, immediately severing the connection between the stealth ship and the freighter that it had so neatly parasites off of over the last few minutas. Not even a beat after the two ships had separated, _The Autonoe_ disappeared off into the distance, now lancing through space at top speed, no doubt hoping to try to make up lost time. With any luck, they wouldn't have shown up on radar at all. At worst, a hiccup that was unlikely to be detected by the pilots on board.

"Ahhhhhhhh," Jadeite said, arm weakly flopping to his side.

"Jadeite, confirm, confirm status," Kunzite demanded. "Status update."

Jadeite had not a drop of power left in him. He could not have made a pebble roll over. Even getting his vocal chords to move was a trial right now.

"Detachment...successful," he croaked out. "Phase four...complete success."

"

Kunzite leaned over the body of _The Thurloe_ , now nestled safely in the payload bay of _The Falconeri_ , just where it had been when this entire crazy mission had begun. He was almost scared to check inside, as if concerned that the two psychics might have just melted into a pile of goop from over-exertion. He knew that it was irresponsible to push them so far, and truth be told, he couldn't even be sure if there would be long-term consequences. Lack of other viable options had forced him to hope it would all work out. But now, he was concerned about what he might find, now that the two of them had gone radio silent for the last half-minuta.

Grabbing a thin steel rod from a rack on the wall, he reached forward towards the center of the small ship and jammed it into a notch on the spine. The top hatch immediately started to slide open.

Steam practically bellowed from the ship the moment it cracked open, Kunzite recoiling slightly. He also quickly became aware of the stench. Fortunately, it seemed to be entirely a product of body heat and sweat, as both young men inside the ship seemed intact and conscious.

The noise of the panel sliding open got Jadeite to open his eyes, and he quickly rolled over, clawing his way out of the ship that was only marginally bigger than a large coffin. Panting, sucking in air, he violently crawled out of the ship and onto the grated floor of _The Falconeri's_ payload bay.

"Are you alright?" Kunzite asked, grimacing at the sight of Jadeite's worn face and sweat-matted uniform.

Jadeite responded only with a series of disgusting retches, followed by strong coughing.

"Kunzite, status?" Princess Venus asked through Kunzite's earpiece.

The General hesitated as he tried to come up with the right answer. "Um...w-well…"

As the coughing subsided, Jadeite was able to get up on his knees, steadying himself. Then, he started to laugh.

"Uh," Kunzite managed, glancing over towards Linos, who was far more passive in his attempts to slowly drag his way out of the ship.

Jadeite's laughter started to pick up in volume, and he even managed to straighten his torso up a bit. Kunzite just stared.

"Kunzite?" Venus asked.

"AHHHH!" Jadeite suddenly shouted, lurching over so he was down on all fours, spittle hanging down off of his lips. "Whew!" He shook his head back and forth. "Gods!"

"I think he'll be just fine," Kunzite finally settled on.


End file.
